Leader In Training
by PixieGirl13
Summary: For the daily life of Richard AKA: Robin, School and Patrol with Batman was enough for the teen.But when he wants his own team,he's going to have to get it the hard way by training 4 kids to be superheroes.My version of Robin becoming leader.
1. Chapter 1 The Daydream

A/N: To tell you readers the truth, I don't really know how Robin formed the Teen Titans or if it was even his idea to. This fic is not going to be off the comics, this is just my version of how Robin started the team and it is based off the T.V. show Teen Titans on Cartoon Network. So if this is not correct by the comic standards I'm sorry. And in the beginning of this fic Robin is only thirteen. With that all taken care of, here is my awesome new fan fiction! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Don't own any of the characters in this first chapter except for the teacher.

**Leader In Training**

By: Pixiegirl13

Chapter 1 The Daydream

Daydreaming does strange things to people. You can go to another whole world in the mater of seconds while the real one vanishes. It is amazing how the mind can do that to pretty much anyone, including the short, number one student in the front row in his History class.

Richard Grayson stared out the side window in the class room. His mind was totally somewhere else. He didn't even know that his teacher, Mr. Lairs, was still droning on about a Conestoga wagon in his usual, monotone voice. He could bore Richard out of his mind!

Right now the young teen was thinking of the night before, or should he say, that early morning at one? Richard was the adopted son of Bruce Wayne. The wealthy businessman was really the legendary Dark Knight, or commonly known as the Batman. Richard was, of course, his sidekick, Robin. So staying up till one in the morning for patrol was a normal thing for the boy.

Richard played back his kicks and punches of that night before. He noted where he wanted to improve or areas he was better at. But the thing that really stood out in his recap was the way he led a group of teens that had been kidnapped in a confusing broken down building on the outskirts of the city. Batman had been too busy taking care of the five bad guys who where waiting for the ransom for the three teens they had kidnapped.

Robin had gone in and helped the teens out of their binds easily as Batman fought. He had been ordered to get out with the teens. Robin had no hesitation and commanded order right away. But his problem was that he didn't know the place too well, and it would take him forever to find his way out. He did not want to risk the teens freaking out because of his confusion, and he most defiantly didn't want to make a complete fool of himself in front of Batman if he came out of the building an hour later.

Robin had taken the teens and used them as a team. They all knew the place better than he did, but each kid only knew a part of the place. Robin was leader as the kids put together the puzzle pieces of the maze-like building.

In only ten to fifteen minutes, Robin had all the teens out, and it had taken a half an hour for him and Batman to find their way around in there. But it had been such a good feeling leading something. Being with Batman so much as a sidekick, he was always looked down upon. Him telling Batman what to do was always out of the question. But that night had made him think deeply about his place by Batman's side.

What Richard did not know was that that thought was quickly turning into a daydream. And that crazy daydream would soon be a big dream and goal. And one day this small, sidekick teen would be the leader of the famous Teen Titans of Jump City. But this story is not about him as the leader of the superhero team. This story starts out with him sitting in a boring History class.

"Richard," Mr. Lairs said while looking over to the teen. Richard was quickly pulled back into reality, and he shook his head to come fully down to earth. He smiled weakly at his teacher as he tried his hardest to remember what Mr. Lairs had been saying. He had no such luck.

"Its seems like Mr. Richard, here, is staring off the new school year like my number three classes," Mr. Lairs said to the class while narrowing his eyes at Richard. The teen slumped down in his seat as the whole class looked over to him with smiles of amusement. In a number one class all the students competed for the top in the private school Richard attended. To see one of the smartest students daydream for once and get caught in the act was pretty good stuff.

"Sorry, sir," Richard said while avoiding eye contact. "I…" The bell rang before he could say anything else. The class got up with books all ready to go. They quickly made their way out of the boring, last period class. Richard was right behind them.

"Richard," Mr. Lairs called after him. Richard cringed at the sound of his teacher's tone and how he said his name. Richard always preferred Dick to anything else, but this teacher always called him Richard. _C'mon! Even Alfred calls me Dick! Why can't this guy?_ Dick thought with a sigh and turning around to face the music.

"I'm sorry if I make you late to your bus, Richard," Mr. Lairs said. He took out a bucket of water and sponge. He handed them to Dick and asked, "Mind if you wash my board down as I speak with you?" He didn't wait for an answer of any kind. "Good."

Dick gave a sigh of defeat and started to wash the chalkboard down. He was not going to be late for his bus. He was going to miss the thing entirely! This made Dick a bit angry because he would have to walk all the way back home, which was around five to six miles away. Maybe he could call Alfred and ask if he could pick him up. But that would mean the butler would tell his dad. Bruce would go all extreme on him and make Dick stay home during patrol so he could get more study time so he could get better grades. He would defiantly have to walk home.

"Richard, I've noticed that you're not doing as well as all the other students this year," Mr. Lairs started. He just watched with a small smile as he saw Dick have trouble reaching the top of the board because of his height issue.

"Well, Mr. Lairs, I have other things to do in the day," Dick said. He bent down and jumped up to reach the top. His teacher was a bit surprised that the boy could jump that high. "I'm just realizing that there are better things in life than school."

"You're father didn't put you in this school so you could get C's, Richard," Mr. Lairs said. "You're in 8th grade right now, and already your grades are slipping little by little. You have noticed this, yes?"

"Yes," Dick answered after a pause. He finished cleaning the board and turned around to face his teacher. "I'll try harder next time. It's just that I have things to do."

"Like what?" Mr. Lairs asked him while raising an eyebrow in interest.

Dick scrambled for words. He had to pause for a few seconds to form a pretty lame lie. "I have chores to do," he said with a nod. He started to gather his books again and headed for the door to get out of there.

"Don't you have a butler?" his teacher asked him.

"Yeah, but Alfred is getting kind of old, so I…dust for him," Dick answered a little too quickly. _Sorry, Alfred,_ he thought. _And why did I say dusting? I HATE dusting! It's the worst kind of punishment besides not being able to go on patrol._

"Fine, Richard," Mr. Lairs said slowly. "But if your grades slip anymore I will be forced to call your father. Is that clear?"

"Perfectly," Dick said with an understanding nod. He then left the room with a shiver going down his spine. _What a mean teacher!_ Dick thought to himself while walking to his locker._ He could totally ruin my life by calling Bruce. How am I going to find more time to study? ... Teachers are evil._

* * *

Dick walked up to his house with his face all flushed from the long walk. His house was more along the lines of a mansion with dozens of old antiques in it that should have been in a museum. Under the mansion was the Bat cave. It was around five in the afternoon, and Dick knew Alfred would be looking for him to give him a small dinner.

Now, going through the front door would have been incredibly stupid on Richard's part. Doing that would alert Alfred that he had been outside while he was supposed to be doing his homework, and questions would be asked. Dick wanted to avoid all those questions. The best way to attack this problem was to go to his acrobat skills.

Richard ran through the grassy yard to the right side of the house. The sweat was slowly beading down his forehead because of his six mile jog here and because he was lugging a full backpack of homework behind him. He stopped next to a giant tree close to the house that went all the way up to the third floor. But Dick only needed to get to the second floor where his room was located. This would be a piece of cake!

The teen looked up the tree with a wicked smile forming on his face. Lately he was having fun pushing his luck with his father and sneaking around behind his back. He was testing to see where his limits were and how much freedom he could have now. Living life on the edge was becoming very entertaining, and he was doing it more often now a days.

Dick jumped easily to the first branch. His small, lithe figure started to skillfully jump and flip to the many branches as he worked his way upward. His parents that had died had been acrobats even to their death and had trained Richard to be one too. Right now he was using all his old tricks to get up to that window where his room was.

With one last jump, Richard was there. He scooted over his branch and leaned over to push open his window. He cursed when it wouldn't open. "Locked!" he muttered under his breath. His mind worked fast. He looked up and the solution came right away. He would just have to come in on the third floor. He could even see a window was left open. It was perfect!

Richard put his backpack on the roof next to his window. "Crap!" he muttered when it fell off the roof and landed on the grass with a soft thud. At least he could move around easily now. He flipped up to the next branch and then slowly kept going up. The branches started to sway under his weight when he got too high. He would have to jump from here.

Gritting his teeth, Richard looked up to the window he wanted to jump to. He was panting a little, but still smiling from this free feeling in him. He sprung off the branch and grabbed onto the windowsill. With a small grunt, he pulled himself up and found himself in Bruce's study.

_Get out of here, Dick!_ Richard thought to himself. _Do you want to get killed? I'll be so dead if he finds me in here!_ He quickly made his way to the door and snuck into the hall as quiet as a mouse. He tip-toed down the steps to the second floor then went to his room. He opened the door and shut it behind him with a sigh of relief.

A second after his mind rejoiced for his small victory, there was a loud knock on his door. Richard winced at the sound and then opened the door a little. He looked up with dread to see his father standing there. His hard blue eyes bore down on his son, who stood there with a nervous look on his face.

"Would you like to explain why your backpack was laying on the ground outside your room, Richard?" Bruce asked him while holding up the muddy and grass stained backpack. He watched as Dick deflated in defeat when he spotted the pack in his father's hands.

"How did you know it was there?" he asked while looking back up at Bruce.

"Next time don't forget that your father comes home at the same time you do and can see you from the end of the driveway," Bruce said sternly.

_Idiot!_ Richard yelled at himself in his head. He gave a sigh and nodded while running a hand through his jet black, spiky hair. He heard Bruce give a tiered sigh and thought, _here it comes. Prepare for the worst!_

"Three whole weeks of dusting and no patrol for tonight," Bruce said sternly. He almost smiled at the stunned and angered face his son gave him. Bruce knew he was being a bit extreme with this punishment, but Richard was getting older. That meant Bruce had to come down hard if he ever wanted to control him.

"You're being unfair!" Richard yelled up at his father. "All I did was come home late. At least let me go on patrol with you tonight!"

"Since when was life fair?" Bruce asked him. "Now tell me why you tried to sneak around behind my back."

"My teacher wanted to talk to me," Dick answered right away. "I had been daydreaming in my History class. It was no big deal, and you're just blowing this way out of proportion."

"You better not be slacking with your grades," Bruce said while pointing a finger in Richard's face. "If you are, then no patrol for a week or till your grades get better."

"It's not that!" Richard said loudly into his father's face. "My teacher is just out to get me. He's evil!"

Bruce frowned some more at his son. "You're sounding very immature right now, Richard," he said. "Now, I want you to stay in your room till I get you. Work on that homework of yours." An after thought hit him when he smelled his sweaty son, and he added before Dick could slam the door in his face, "And go take a shower. You smell."

"You're impossible!" Richard hissed back before storming off down the hall to the bathroom.

* * *

"Don't tell me that you're still made at me for the other day, Robin," Batman asked the teen sitting next to him in the Bat mobile. It was a day after Richard had been sentenced his dusting punishment, and he was still kind of sulking about it.

"It took me three whole hours to finish the house today!" Robin said while holding up three fingers to get his point across to Batman. "And it was only because I daydreamed for once in class."

Batman let himself express a hint of a smile at his son's actions. He was turning into a teenager all right! That rebellious spirit would be working full time very soon. He would have to keep showing him where his place was.

"What were you daydreaming about then?" Batman asked Robin with a small glance to the teen beside him. He was in a good mood because patrol was over for the night and they both had done a good job.

Robin opened his mouth to say something but then stopped. "It was nothing," he then muttered. He stared out the window as the buildings flew by at what seemed to be light speed. Even though his eyes were covered up by his mask, Batman knew that the teen was frustrated and was holding something inside. It was his job to get it out of him.

"No, tell me," Batman said. "Don't forget that I was once your age. I daydreamed too."

Robin gave a long sigh and prepared to tell Batman what had been on his mind for the past two days. "Okay, I'm serious about this," he said with a small smile. "I want to start my own team of superheroes and I will be leader."

There was a long silence in the car. Batman stared straight with his face a mystery. Robin watched the man for any signs that he had heard him. He bit his lower lip and waited for his father to say something, anything.

Batman then did something that Robin did not think that he would ever do. He laughed. Robin's eyes went wide with surprise at first. He then narrowed them in anger. He couldn't believe that his father was laughing at his idea.

"I'm sorry, Richard," Bruce said while controlling himself. "I just don't see you as a leader."

"No," Robin said. "I could do it! I'm tiered of being sidekick. I want to lead something of my own. I'm getting older now."

"You're still way too young for a team of your own, Robin," Batman said with his voice back to its serious and stern tone. "Where do you get these wild ideas?"

"This isn't a wild idea," Robin protested. "I even have a few of the members picked out. Some have awesome powers that could be put into good use. We need a new team of superheroes. Gotham City isn't the only city that has villains in it. At least consider it, Bruce! I'm begging you!"

Batman said nothing for a long time. Robin stared at him with his face pleading for this team of his. Bruce was thinking hard about this. He knew that Robin could never be leader at this age. It was most likely an idea he wanted explore and toy with. It was only his rebellious spirit coming out. He didn't like to take orders from the Batman and that was all. Well, he would teach Robin what it meant to be leader. He would have to learn it the hard way.

"Fine," Batman said with his voice emotionless.

"YES!" Robin shouted with joy.

"But!" Batman cut in sharply.

"Aw, man!" Robin moaned with his mood changing drastically in seconds. "Does there always have to be a twist in your plans? Why can't it just be yes or no? Would that kill you?"

"If you complete your training as leader then I'll let you pick your team and city," Batman said.

"Training?"

A/N: I think this first chapter was a bit boring, but you never know. But this gets good fast so please stick with me! But please tell me how you like it in a review. Did it suck out loud or did you like it? Just give a review! Thanks!


	2. Chapter 2 The Kids

A/N: Not too many reviews for my first chapter, but that was expected. Now comes the good stuff! I hope you like it. Please R&R.

Disclaimer: I don't own Batman, Alfred, or Robin. I do own some of the kids, though.

Chapter 2 The Kids

"So when does my training start?" Robin asked Batman as they stood in the shadows of a train platform. It was three days after Batman had said that Robin needed training. "And who are we waiting for? Is it one of Alfred's friends? And shouldn't we be just Bruce and Richard if that was the case?"

"So many questions," Batman said while shaking his head with a small smile on his lips. "Why don't you just be quiet and let the answers come?"

"But I'm sick of being left in the dust all the time," Robin complained.

"Patience, Robin," Batman told him calmly. "It is something you have to learn."

"Yeah," Robin muttered under his breath. "And it's something I have little of."

The two stood there for a few more minutes. Very few people were at the train station at around midnight. A few homeless people slept on the benches while some people waited around the platform yawning from being up so late. But Robin was wide awake. He couldn't wait to get through his training and prove Batman wrong. He knew he could lead a team by himself.

Finally the sound of a train blasted into everyone's ears. Robin looked into the darkness of the night and saw a small light of the train come into view. He smiled and wondered who would be in there. Would this person be part of his training?

The train came to a screeching halt at the platform and made a few people wince. Some lights went on above them to show the newcomers their way. The doors opened and a few people shuffled out looking sleepy and tiered. Some looked like they were half awake.

Robin's smile widened in amusement when four little kids jumped out of the doors of the train. One girl shoved another little boy out of the door with a wicked smile spreading across her face. Her black hair stuck out of a bandana on her head with a skull on it. Her shirt said "I love Death". She looked like she was a big handful.

The kid she had pushed was a dinky, little kid. He was small and very pale. His extremely, curly blond hair was like a puff cloud on his head. He had glasses hiding his bright blue eyes behind them. He cowered under the girl's demanding power. They both looked to be only nine or ten years old.

"We are here!" another girl squealed in delight. She jumped into the air with a wide smile on her face. Her long brown hair was put up into two cute pigtails. She had on a pink sleeveless shirt and jeans with sparkles on them. She smiled some more when the next kid got off.

The last kid watched the others with mild interest in his deep, green eyes. He had dark, brown hair that went into his eyes. He wore a blue hoodie and black pants. He then looked away from the other group while putting his hands in his pockets. He sighed in annoyance and turned the volume of his walkman up that was playing some rock band.

"I feel sorry for the person who has to take care of those kids," Robin said to Batman with a small laugh. "They look like a handful."

Batman only smiled. It didn't take long for Robin to catch on. Dread started till creep up on him as his smile quickly faded. _Oh no!_ He thought while looking back to the kids. _I'm so dead! Me and my big mouth!_

"Don't feel sorry for yourself, Robin," Batman then said. He started to walk toward the kids. Robin hesitated before following after him.

The preppy girl gasped when she saw Batman and kind of hid behind the silent boy with his headphones. The punk girl stopped her torturing on the dinky kid when she saw the two superheroes. She smiled and gave the kid one, last shove before standing up straight and trying to look like the angel she wasn't.

"You four must be the superheroes in training," Batman said to the group. "You were sent over to me because Robin, here, needs to go through training himself to be a leader. He will train you while you will train him. Have a good night." With that said, he turned around and started to leave.

"Whoa, wait!" Robin said while quickly cutting Batman off. "What's going on?"

"These four kids are your team for now," Batman answered. He held back a smile because of his son's priceless expression. "I'm not taking you home. To get to know these kids I'm making you all walk home. When you get there I will lay down all the rules. Goodnight, Robin."

"You can't do that!" Robin yelled after Batman.

"How much do you want to be a leader, Robin?" Batmanaskedbehind his shoulder while still walking away. "Ask yourself that question. Only you can answer it."

Robin growled out of anger and frustration. So this was his training? It was unexpected, but that was expected from Batman. He hated to admit that he had not seen this coming in a hundred years. He knew that Batman had a sense of humor somewhere in that shell of his, but this was just too much. Bruce was only doing this to prove that he was right and that Robin was not leader material. He was most likely laughing his head off right now.

"I'll show him," Robin seethed. "This time he will be wrong for once."

"Can we leave now, Mr. Robin?" the preppy girl asked him suddenly.

Robin turned around to face this new mini team of his. They all stared back at him with different expressions on their faces. They were all so different. He sighed while shaking his head. Batman wasn't going to tell him what to do this time. He was going to have to do things his way. But wasn't this was what he wanted?

"Okay, team," Robin said with a smile. "I need names, age, and power."

"I'm Amelia!" the preppy girl said loudly and happily. "And I'm eight, almost nine. And my power is that I can move water! And I'm a cheerleader, and I love the color pink, and my hero is Hillary Duff, and…"

"Okay!" Robin said quickly to shut the girl up. "How 'bout the other girl?"

"My name is…Lilly," she said quietly. "But you can call me Shadow Demon. And I'm ten. I have light powers."

"We will just call you Lilly," Robin said sternly. "Nicknames will be given later." She growled at him with a small hiss of anger, and everyone took a step away from her. "And what about you?" he asked while pointing to the wimpy kid.

"Um…my name is Josh," he said weakly. "I'm nine and my power is to turn invisible."

"Cool," Robin said with a nod. He could come in handy. "And last but not least," he said while nodding to the other kid off to the side of the group.

"Alex, ten, and fire powers," he said while looking over to them.

There was a long pause as Robin wondered what to do next. It would take a long walk to get back home, and he knew these kids would not be able to walk that whole way without collapsing. He would have to get on a bus or something. But he didn't have any money. He sighed in total confusion of the situation.

"I'm hungry," Lilly said. "Can we just go now?"

"Problem is that we have no way to get home," Robin said. "Have any ideas?" Too bad no one had one.

* * *

"Master Bruce?" Alfred questioned Bruce while serving him his usual morning coffee before he headed off to work.

"Yes, Alfred?" Bruce asked the old butler. He put down his paper a little, and a small smile crossed his lips. He was in a good mood this morning for some reason unknown to the butler.

"Where is Master Dick?" Alfred asked Bruce with some concern in his voice. "He did not come down for breakfast this morning. And his bus comes in only an hour, and there is no sign of him."

"He started his training for leader," Bruce said with a wicked smile spreading over his face. "He'll be here any minute now." Alfred looked over to Bruce with confusion. Five minutes later there was ring from the doorbell, and Alfred quickly answered it.

"Oh my!" Alfred said while looking at the sight before him.

"Hey, Alfred," Robin said weakly. Three little kids were sitting around his legs, and another one sleeping on his back. They all looked worn out and flushed. Sweat pored down all their foreheads, and all their stomachs were growling out of pure starvation.

"What happened?" Alfred demanded from the teen as he slowly walked into the comfort of the home. The kids groaned while getting up and following their leader into the house. Alfred's eyes were wide in horror and surprise. He rarely saw the teen like this. "And what is with all these kids, Master Dick?"

"My team," Robin answered. He set Josh down from his piggy back ride. The other kids started to look around the place with much interest of the huge mansion. "We need food," he said while walking over to the kitchen with the kids right behind him.

"You made it!" Bruce said with pretend happiness as they all piled into the kitchen. Robin glared at him then focused his attention to the kids. He got out some bowls, spoons, and milk.

"Mine!" Lilly yelled at the others while snatching the milk off the counter and chugging it down in only a few gulps. Josh started to cry when he saw this while Amelia started to scold her for it. "What are you?" Lilly asked her, "My mom?" That shut Amelia up.

"Don't worry, we have more milk," Robin muttered. He made sure Lilly didn't get it, and he made all the kids some cereal. He then sat back and watched all the kids dig into their meals like starving wolves. He closed his eyes and gave a sigh.

Alfred waited for either Bruce or Richard to explain. Bruce realized that Robin was too worn out to say anything at the moment, so he would have to explain things to Alfred. "Richard wants to lead his own team of superheroes, so I'm putting him through training. His job is to lead this team of kids with superpowers. But don't worry, Alfred. You won't have to take care of them. That will be Richard's job."

This snapped Robin out of his sleepy daze. "You can't make me do all that!" he protested. "I have other things to do. Like school and patrol. Who will take care of them at those times?"

"They are going to school in Gotham City for a while," Bruce answered. "And they will be sleeping on patrol. And speaking of school, it starts in half an hour for you."

Robin's eyes widened in surprise as he said, "I can't go to school today!"

"You can and you will, young man!" Bruce said sternly. "Alfred can take care of the kids for only today. But I'm not letting you slack in your grades because of this. You have to keep good grades and train this team at the same time. Understand?"

Robin sighed once again while running his hand through his hair. "Fine," he muttered. He looked to his team that was finishing up their breakfast. "Team," he said and all their eyes lifted up to him. "I'm leaving for school. I'll pick up all your luggage waiting at the train station sometime this afternoon. Alfred will take care of you till I come back from school. Don't be rude or mean. Got that?"

They all shook their heads yes except for Alex and Lilly. "Lilly?" Robin asked her sternly. She gave a loud sigh then muttered a yes under her breath. "Did you hear what I said Alex?" Robin asked the boy while taking off one of his headphones to get any kind of reaction out of the stolid kid.

"Yes," Alex muttered with annoyance in his voice. Robin let him go and walked out of the kitchen with his face serious. Bruce smiled to himself and started to read his paper again. Sooner than later Robin would crack under the pressure. Alfred just stared that the kids in horror. It was like taking care of four little Robins all day long! He was going to hate this day!

* * *

"No, Miss Lilly!" Alfred said to Lilly as she started to mess with a stand that held an old Chinese vase that was worth millions. She laughed evilly while pushing it over and running away. Alfred dove for the vase and caught it before it smashed. He gave a sigh of relief and set it back in place.

As the butler dusted the vase off, he saw Amelia doing back hand springs down the hallway. He left his duster were it was as he took off to stop the girl before she knocked into another vase stand. He gasped when he saw her at the last second change her direction and come to a stop in front of him. She did a small bow and smiled at Alfred.

"Don't do that again," Alfred told her.

"Okay!" Amelia said cheerfully. "Boy, is Alex's headphones loud," she muttered to herself while walking away to find herself some entertainment of any kind.

Alfred agreed with the girl. He glared at Alex who was lying on the couch listening to his music with his eyes closed. The butler walked over to him and took the headphones off the boy's head and said sternly to him, "Keep the noise down, Master Alex. And feet off the couch, please."

Alex glared daggers at him before getting up and walking away. He had to put on the brakes when Josh came running past him screaming at the top of his lungs in his high pitched scream. Lilly was casing him with a sharp kitchen knife clutched in her right hand. She smiled wickedly while laughing her heart out from pure entertainment.

"Oh my god!" Alfred breathed while seeing this.

"Idiots," Alex muttered to both Josh and Lilly. Suddenly Josh turned invisible and Alfred screamed in fright at seeing his first dose of superpowers. Lilly turned to Alex with a death glare. He simply shrugged his shoulders and started to leave.

"I'm not an idiot, idiot!" Lilly yelled at Alex while coming at him with her knife. Her light powers would do nothing right now. She gave a loud battle cry while lunging at him. Alex turned sharply around and threw a huge fireball at the girl. She started to scream when she realized that she was on fire.

"Somebody get some water!" Alfred shouted to no one in particular. Josh was still screaming his head off along with the panicking Lilly who was still on fire. Alex walked away while turning up his walkman without caring too much of the others. Amelia came into the room and started to scream because of the hectic atmosphere.

Suddenly a bucket of water was pored on top of Lilly. She calmed down quickly and looked behind her to see Richard there holding an empty pitcher in both hands. Everyone stopped screaming and Josh turned visible again. They all stared at the teen thankfully because he had stopped all the madness.

"Alex!" Dick shouted to the boy climbing the stairs. Alex stopped and looked down with a sigh. "Get your butt down here!" Alex didn't move and this made Dick shout, "NOW! That was an order!" Alex hesitated before finally coming down the stairs and standing beside Amelia.

"Give me that!" Dick said harshly to Lilly while pulling the knife out of her hand. He shook his head in frustration and looked at the group with his face a mystery just like Batman's sometimes. "This behavior is horrible!" he yelled at the group. "My only order to you guys today was to be good. If you can't even obey one order then I'm going to have to show you how to. We are going to the park."

"She started it," Josh said quietly while pointing to Lilly.

"I'll kill you for saying that, tattletale!" Lilly yelled at Josh while going for him. Josh screamed and turned invisible again. Dick grabbed Lilly by the shoulders and held her there.

"Get out of the house right now, Lilly!" Dick ordered her while lightly pushing her toward the door. She glared at him but did what he said. "That is the same for the rest of you. I'll be there in a few minutes."

Once they were all out of the house, Dick collapsed onto the couch looking miserable as ever. Alfred was worried about the young teen. He had no sleep for a whole day and he was going to the park with all those rambunctious kids. Alfred did not know how long Richard could handle this.

"I'm afraid that being a leader is not your thing, Master Dick," Alfred said while sitting next to Dick.

"Not you too, Alfred," Richard said while getting up. "I can do this," he said stubbornly to the butler. "Bruce is wrong this time. I'll be a leader in no time. Watch me!" With that said, Richard walked to the door and left. Alfred shook his head in concern. Boy, that teen was determined.

A/N: I told my little sisters to make one of the kids as their own character. Lilly is Naomi's character while Amelia is Debbie's. The funny thing is that their characters are pretty much like themselves and it makes me laugh. The two boys are my creations, though. I hoped you liked this chapter. Please give a review! Thanks!


	3. Chapter 3 You Failed

A/N: How come no one likes to review things anymore? It kind of frustrates me because I want to know how my fan fic is coming along but no one tells me anything. But I'm going to keep going with this fic even with so little reviews. And thanks to those people who did review! Please R&R! Thanks!

Disclaimer: Don't own anything from Batman or the Teen Titans. Heck, I don't even own Lilly or Amelia.

Chapter 3 You Failed

"I thought that we were going to the park," Amelia said to Richard as they walked up next to an old run down warehouse. "This place looks scary."

"I'm with her," Josh said from where he was hiding behind Richard's legs. "Do we really have to train in there?"

"Baby!" Lilly snapped at Josh and this made the boy jump. Both Alex and Richard sighed while rolling their eyes. "I like this place," Lilly said with a wicked smile coming to her face.

"Figures," Richard muttered while walking into the building. The others quickly followed behind him. The building was dusty and old. No one had been in it since some stupid villain had used it as his head quarters. Robin thought it would be a perfect place to train his team. No one would see them.

"Now," Richard said while taking off his shirt to reveal that he was wearing his Robin uniform under his school clothes. He had no time to change that morning when he got home, so he had kept them on. Robin put on his mask and then looked to his team with a smile. "Lesson one. Come at me and give me all you got. When one of you gets this lucky penny then you have learned the lesson and we can move on."

"Too easy," Lilly said while folding her arms in front of her. She gave Robin a smug smile, and the others nodded in agreement. They knew that their leader was worn out from no sleep while they were all rested up. And all knew that Robin had no powers.

"Don't be fooled," Robin said while flipping the penny in the air and catching it before it landed on the ground. "The lucky penny has magical powers," he said with a sneaky smile on his face.

"Really?" Josh and Amelia asked him at once. Of course, they were the gullible ones of the group. This only made Alex roll his eyes again while Lilly laughed at their stupidity.

"Wait and see," Robin said with a playful smile.

"That stupid penny is mine!" Lilly suddenly yelled while throwing herself at Robin. She jumped into the air with a loud battle cry. The kick could have been seen a mile away, and Robin easily dodged it with that smile still on his lips. He grabbed Lilly by the shoulder and swung her around so that Alex hesitated before throwing a fireball at him.

"Hitting your own team member makes you get a timeout, Alex," Robin said to the boy. Alex frowned and threw another fireball at Robin that he dodged. "I said timeout, Alex," Robin said while taking out some handcuffs from his belt. He moved so fast that the kid had no idea that he was handcuffed until Robin had tied a rope around his chest and used one of the hooks hanging from the ceiling to suspend the boy there.

"Hey!" Alex yelled at his leader with anger in his voice. Robin smiled when he had finally broken the kid's cool for the first time.

Robin waved the coin in Alex's face while saying, "Arrogance is not the best thing in a team, Alex. Come down to earth and see yourself as one of the others or this will happen during every time you fight for now on. Get over yourself."

Alex just barred his teeth and said nothing. He hated to admit that he was prideful, but his stubbornness always got in the way. He always thought he was better than the others and even his leader. He hated it when everything was coming back at him and slamming him in the face.

"Take this!" Amelia yelled while finally working up the guts to come at Robin. The teen saw her coming at the last second and did a few back flips to get out of the way. Amelia was quick and came back at him with a swift roundhouse kick. Robin smiled while grabbing her ankle and twisting the girl's body so that she was facing the opposite way.

"Wait!" Amelia yelled in panic. Robin pushed her away, and she went tumbling down with a high pitched scream. She slowly got up and looked up at him with sadness on her face while saying, "This is too hard. What is the point of going after you?"

"You have great form," Robin said to her while dusting himself off. "But I don't like quitters. Suck it up and come at me again."

"But there is no point!" Amelia said with anger in her voice now.

"Go tell that to Lilly," Robin muttered. He stepped to the side and smiled when Lilly ran past him and crashed into Amelia with a loud 'uuff'. Robin sighed and dodged five more quick attacks from the wild girl. He then got serious, and in one swift move he had Lilly pinned down on the dirty ground.

"Don't be so eager to attack your opponent," Robin said calmly to her. "Try not to be the first one to attack. Don't throw caution into the wind all the time. And another tip, Lilly," he said smugly, "You're not the whole team. Remember that."

"You need to stop acting like you know what you're doing," Lilly said to Robin. Her leader frowned as she went on. "It is clear that you have no clue what you're doing. You don't know one thing about being a leader, so stop acting like you do!"

"Good strategy," Robin said with a smile. He started to tie her up and carried her over to where Alex was trying his best to get out of his binds while still dangling a few feet in the air. Lilly started to shout and kick, but Robin was not affected by her actions. Lilly was quickly right beside her other team member in the same situation.

"Now," Robin said to Lilly with his hands on his hips. "If Batman said that kind of thing to me it would have ticked me off so bad that I would have attacked out of anger and that would be bad. But you're not Batman, so right now I don't take what you say seriously. But you do have some talent of picking at someone's weaknesses. It might come in handy someday during a fight."

"Freak!" Lilly yelled at Robin as he walked away. She started to kick her legs to try to break free. This only made Alex get angry, and he glared at her to stop. Robin jumped on top of some dusty boxes and sat there watching his team figure out what to do. Amelia was in the corner sulking from what she thought was defeat. Alex and Lilly were still struggling to get out of their binds.

"Where's Josh?" Robin asked himself while looking around the warehouse with confusion. "He was here just a few seconds ago." The leader suddenly became very alert for any sound that would give him a hint to where the boy had gone to.

Robin gave a small chuckle when he saw for a few seconds Josh's shirt in the middle of the warehouse. He had thought that the kid had turned invisible to get the penny with a surprise attack. Josh was really hiding from him out of fright.

"Josh!" Robin yelled down to the boy. He waited for a few seconds till Josh weakly answered him while still invisible. "Why are you hiding?" Robin asked him. "You're team is in trouble and you do nothing. Don't you want this penny?"

"No," Josh answered. "You'll beat me up just like the others."

Robin frowned while hearing this. "You guys," he said for all of them to hear. "I'm not your enemy. I'm your leader. I don't want to hurt you guys. I just want to make you think like a team, and right now you all are failing. I can't just give you the answers to this test."

The kids were too stubborn to learn their leader's lesson. After a few minutes of absolute nothing from the kids, Robin gave a sigh and jumped off the boxes. He then came down hard on his team. They needed to be punished for their bad behavior that afternoon.

"You guys fail," Robin said to them sternly. He took out a bird-a-rang and cut down Alex and Lilly. They both looked down in defeat as the other two walked up to Robin. "Get down and give me 50 pushups right now!" he commanded them while folding his arms in front of him.

"That's not fair!" Amelia said. "I didn't do anything."

"Precisely," Robin said to her with a wicked smile coming to his face. "Now, give me my pushups!"

"He's a freaking Nazi!" Lilly whispered to Alex while getting down and doing her pushups. Alex gave a sigh and ignored her. Josh obeyed his leader right away to avoid getting yelled at. After some pouting, Amelia finally gave in.

"My only order was to behave when with Alfred," Robin said to them. His voice was harsh and had a sharp tone to it. He glared down at the four kids struggling to do what he had told them to do. "I came into my house today only to see Lilly on fire because of Alex. Amelia and Josh are screaming their heads off and doing nothing! Disobey me like that again and you will be doing double this many pushups!"

* * *

Batman looked down to Robin sitting beside him in the Bat mobile. He gave a small smile when he saw the teen yawn while staring out the window silently. He was really tiered, but he was trying his hardest to not show it in front of him. He had determination; Batman would give him credit for that much.

"So how is your team?" Batman asked him finally while cracking the silence.

"Fine," Robin said with a cocky smile. "After a week I'll have them trained."

"Really?" Batman asked him with a raised eyebrow. He didn't believe one word of it.

"Yep," Robin said while trying to desperately hold back a yawn. "Whoa, slow down, Batman," he said while suddenly becoming alert.

"I saw it," Batman said while parking in a dark alley way. They both quickly jumped out of the car and used their grappling hooks to get them on top of the building beside them. They made their ways back to the warehouse they had seen all the police cars parked next to. They snuck into the building by the ventilation system.

"What is it?" Robin asked Batman with confusion. They both were in the rafters staying hidden from the all the people rushing around by blinding into the shadows. "Looks like a murder."

"Serial Killer," Batman said quietly. "She struck a few nights ago when you didn't come along for patrol."

"She?" Robin asked while tilting his head to the side. "How can you tell?"

"I'm not sure if it is a she," Batman answered. "But the knife wounds on the last victim looked like they took a long time to do it to that person. Usually men are stronger than woman so they tend to only take a few hits before they cut through bone or it could take just one strike. This person's wounds looked like they had hit the place a lot more."

"Who is the serial killer targeting?" Robin asked Batman after a few seconds of digesting this information. Batman said nothing at first. Robin looked up to him and waited till he finally told him.

"Young male teens," Batman said while glancing down to Robin.

"Poor kids," Robin said quietly while looking back down to the new victim covered up with a white cloth. Red stains of blood covered the body in different places. Robin noticed that a leg and arm was not on the victim and a shiver went down his spine. Gotham City had some really crazy people in it.

He didn't notice Batman looking down at him with some worry on his face. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he lost Robin that way. Robin was like Batman's light side. He was the colorful sidekick that Batman liked to have around. As Richard, he was the spark in the family. Even though Richard wasn't his real son, Bruce still loved him as much as his very own.

"There is no more we can do here," Batman said.

"Okay," Robin said with a stiff nod. He gave a big yawn after Batman went up the ventilation shaft to the roof. He stole one last look of the bloody teen then followed after the Dark Knight.

* * *

Richard woke up with a small gasp. He looked up to Mr. Lairs with a small grimace. He had fallen asleep in the teacher's class by mistake. His punishment for this was much like the other one from the day before. But Richard had missed his bus once again, and he could kill himself for it. His team would be getting home right about now, and he had to be there.

Dick walked out of the school in panic mode. How was he to get home now? Bruce and Alfred would have his head if he didn't come home on time. Those kids could be such a handful! Richard did the only thing his head could come up with quick enough. He ran.

The young teen took off in a sprint down the sidewalk at top speed. He was pretty fast for his age because of all the training he did with Bruce whenever they had the chance. His backpack was a big nuisance as he kept on running. He had a ton of homework once again, and the boy didn't think he would ever get some real sleep in a long time.

Suddenly a car drove up in front of the teen sharply and stopped. Richard gave a sharp yelled while trying his best to put on his brakes. He slammed into the side door of the car, and his head was thrown into the open window. He came face to face with Bruce.

"Need a ride?" Bruce asked his son with a smile playing at the corner of his lips. He loved to surprise Richard like this, and he knew that his son would not take him up on that offer for the first couple of tries. Dick had a huge pride issue that Bruce loved the pick at. Like father, like son.

"Why the heck did you do that?" Dick yelled at his father while backing up a few steps. "Do you want me to break your car door or something like…well, I don't know…my bones maybe? And no, I don't need a ride!"

"Why are you so mad at me?" Bruce asked him. He became serious real fast as he asked, "Why aren't you on your bus? What did you do in school today?"

"Nothing!" Dick said quickly. He tried to avoid anymore questions by going around the car, but his dad simply drove forward to stop him. Bruce gave him a serious look and frowned at him. Dick hated to be defeated so quickly, but lately he had no strength left to fight anyone.

"I…I fell asleep in History class," Richard muttered. As he said this, he scratched the back of his head and smiled weakly at his father. He was a bit surprised when Bruce only smiled slyly at him that was like a billboard saying "I TOLD YOU SO!"

"Can I go now?" Dick asked Bruce with his voice pleading to be let free.

"What about a free ride from your loving father?" Bruce asked him.

"No thanks," Richard muttered.

"You know you want to ride with me," Bruce said smugly. "You're such a stubborn kid."

"So what?" Dick asked his father while starting to walk away.

"What about your team?"

Richard stopped in his tracks as he had to swallow his pride. He gave a sigh and turned around. He cringed before saying, "You win…for now."

A/N: This chapter is short compared to chapters of my other fan fictions. I hope you people like it so far. It is not as good as my other fics because this one is just for fun and the others are more serious. But please give a review! Thanks!


	4. Chapter 4 Fight By the Docks

A/N: Thanks, people, for reviewing the last chapter. I'm glad that people like it so far. One of you guys hoped that Robin would not get sick and it made me laugh evilly. You have no idea how hard I'm going to push this wannabe leader. Sometimes writers love to be so evil. Well, here is your chapter. Please R&R! Thanks!

Disclaimer: You have to ride the short bus if you think I own some of these characters.

Chapter 4 Fight By the Docks

"I hate this!" Lilly said as she collapsed onto her bed with a sigh. Sweat covered her whole forehead, and her breathing was short along with all the others that dragged themselves into the same room that they were sharing.

"What is his problem?" Amelia asked them. They had just finished another combat practice and they had failed lesson one five times by now. Robin had exploded on them for their stubborn stupidity and made them do a crazy workout that left them feeling like rubber.

"Simple," Lilly muttered, "He's a freaking Nazi."

"Maybe we would pass the first test if you weren't such an idiot on the playing field," Alex hissed at her. The hard workout had gotten to him and he was snapping at everyone now.

"What about you, freak?" Lilly asked him while standing up to get in his face. "You're the one blowing fire around aimlessly! What makes you so better than me or the rest of us?"

"You just get in the way!" Alex yelled at her with his powers going out of control for a few seconds. Everyone backed away as his hands burst into flames from his sudden anger release.

"And what about you, miss prissy?" Lilly asked Amelia. She was through with Alex because she knew he could set her on fire again, and Robin would blow his top. Amelia frowned at her and stuck her nose in the air. "You're so up on your cloud that you can't even take the time to attack him anymore."

"There is no point to attacking him if he doesn't give us a chance," Amelia said with her voice all snotty.

"Maybe if you did something there could be a chance!" Lilly yelled back at her. She then turned over to Josh and he turned invisible in fright. "You know what, I won't even start with you, baby!"

"Maybe if we worked together we could get this done," Alex said from where he was cooling off on his bed. They all looked over to him with frowns. "Don't you guys get it?" he asked them. "Robin wants us to work as a team, and we won't get that penny if we work separately."

"I don't want that penny anymore," Amelia muttered. "I just want to beat our mean leader."

"You and me both!" Lilly said. Josh came visible and gave a nod. It then dawned on the four that they all had the same goal now. They didn't want the penny, but all of them wanted to beat their teacher. They all smiled slightly, and this was the start of the team.

* * *

"You know the drill," Robin said while standing in the middle of the warehouse. He looked at his penny for a few seconds then let out a sigh. Would this day be the same as the others? These kids weren't getting it even though it was smacking them in the face, and it was making Robin so very frustrated. When would they learn?

"Surprise is the best element in battle," Alex whispered to Lilly. "Start out with what you usually do, but at the last second switch to our plan." Lilly nodded while throwing herself at Robin. She came in with a roundhouse kick that Robin easily stopped by grabbing her foot.

"You're going to have to try a lot harder than that," Robin told her.

"As you wish, pretty boy," Lilly said with her voice having an evil tone to it. A wicked smile spread over her lips as she stuck her palms out at the teen. "Alex, now!"

To Lilly's surprise, Robin smiled slightly before turning his head around to see what was coming before it hit him. Alex shot a big fireball at the teen, and with Lilly's light powers she amplified it. Robin gave a short yell while pushing Lilly one way and throwing himself the other way of the fireball coming at him.

"Great," Robin said sarcastically while picking himself up. Smaller fireballs came flying in his direction, and he had to run to avoid getting hit with one. Amelia suddenly sent Robin to the ground by jumping off the boxes he was running next to and landed on his shoulders. Robin landed on his stomach with a loud 'uuff'.

"Give me the penny!" Amelia ordered Robin while sitting on his back and clawing at his hand wrapped around the penny. Robin winced while glaring up at her. He quickly grabbed her hand that was trying to get his penny and flipped her off him. The teen got up and smiled down at her.

"Please don't tell me that's it," Robin told her. He couldn't keep the happiness out of his voice. They were finally getting it! "Unless you're just born a quitter."

"I'm not that easily thrown off," Amelia muttered. She got up quickly and came at him with various different attacks that Robin easily blocked, but the girl was sharp and her form was good. "Now, Josh!" suddenly Amelia yelled, and this caught Robin off guard. He looked behind him and only saw Josh standing off to the side doing nothing but looking at them intently.

"Huh?" Robin asked himself while looking back to Amelia with confusion. She was gone! Suddenly Robin felt a punch to his shoulder. Then an invisible knee was shoved into his stomach and knocked all the air out of him. He winced while bending over in surprise. Josh could make others invisible!

"Lilly, again!" Alex yelled to the girl while running up to Robin. Lilly nodded, and they both executed the same attack from before. Robin's eyes went wide while looking over to them. He forgot his pain and jumped into the air and landed on the boxes next to him. He then jumped one more time before the boxes exploded under his feet from the fireball, and he grabbed onto the many hooks hanging around the place.

Robin swung himself at Josh with a smile. Josh screamed loudly while turning invisible and ducking. Robin let go of his hook and landed behind Josh on both feet. He grabbed some rope lying around the warehouse, and he easily tied up the scared kid.

"Let him go!" Lilly yelled while coming at Robin. The teen caught her wrist and then grabbed her foot that had attempted to kick him. He untied her shoelace and tied her hand to her shoe and then let her go with a smile. "Idiot!" Lilly yelled at him while hopping around and then finally losing her balance and falling to the floor with a soft thud.

"Not so fast!" Robin said while grabbing Alex from behind as he was trying to set Josh free with his fire powers. Alex tried his best to get away, but once again he was handcuffed and tied up with a cord that was fireproof.

"No!" Alex yelled loudly while struggling in his binds. He hated to lose like this. They had finally worked as a team, and Robin was still beating them! He couldn't hold back his anger and frustration and flames quickly engulfed his hands as he let these emotions go.

"Let them go, you big meanie!" Amelia screamed at Robin while coming at him again. Robin ducked from her kick and backed up with surprise on his face. These kids were getting vicious! It could get scary if you didn't know what to do.

"Calm down, Amelia," Robin said to her while blocking some more of her attacks. "Attacking out of pure anger is not a good thing. You lose your sense of things."

"No!" Amelia yelled at him. She had trained hard from others to become a superhero, and now she was failing miserably because of her teacher. She wouldn't give up anymore. If Robin wanted her to suck it up and keep going that was exactly what she was going to do.

"I said calm down!" Robin shouted at her. He grabbed her ankle and flung her down to the floor to stop her. She landed on her back with a small wince and looked up at her leader with fire burning in her eyes that Robin didn't think she could have.

There was a pause. Silence filled the warehouse, and the air was hot and sticky from all the fighting. Robin looked out over to his team staring at him with narrowed eyes. He smiled grimly when realizing that their hatred for him had bonded them together. This only saddened his heart.

Robin sighed while bending down to Amelia's face. He smiled faintly at her and was returned with a scowl. "There is one thing you haven't tried yet," he said quietly to her. He opened up his hand to reveal the penny.

Amelia stared up into his eyes with confusion. Everyone was quiet as they stared at their leader with the same perplexity as Amelia. The girl hesitated before holding her palm out and asking, "Could I have the penny please?"

"Yes," Robin said with a smile coming to his face. He gave the penny to the girl with a nod. He stood up straight and said to the whole team, "You pass. Training starts tomorrow, but I think you guys deserve something. How 'bout some ice cream?"

After a few seconds of complete silence, as each kid tried to figure out if Robin was kidding with them or not, they all then smiled a little and nodded. Kids could never say no to ice cream, and Robin knew this. He had a lot of ground to make up and he had to redo his image to these kids, but right now he and the kids needed a time to relax.

* * *

The October air was cold and brisk. Winter was coming up fast and the coldness was arriving early to Gotham City this year. The wind was light, but freezing as ice if you didn't have a coat on. At night the darkness brought more coldness to the city.

Batman and Robin looked down at the docks that night, watching the five thieves loading up their boats quietly. They had gotten past security at the bank, but Batman and Robin had found out their tricks and followed them to the docks to take them down.

Robin gave a big yawn when he thought Batman was not looking, and his breath was shown in one puffy, white cloud. Batman glanced down at him and shook his head. Sleep was something Robin had little of nowadays, and Batman was starting to worry about him. Of course, pride was the only thing keeping the man from ordering Robin to get more sleep.

"You take the two on the right," Batman said quietly to his sidekick. Robin nodded while shaking off his sleepy feeling always haunting him at these times. Once he went into action, adrenaline would take over his body and keep him going for the whole night.

With nods, the two swooped down to the wooden docks and landed side-by-side. Robin expressed a small, cocky smile when he saw all the men drop what they were doing to look behind them to see the two superheroes.

"You might be smart enough to take on a safe," Robin said to them. "But are you guys smart enough to take down the Batman and Robin?"

Batman didn't give the three men he was after to even breathe before he was down their backs. The three were pretty good fighters and were strong, so he was having some small trouble taking them all down. Robin, on the other hand, was playing more of the defensive because he wasn't as strong as the two men he was taking down.

The teen's small body weaved in and out of the men's legs while jumping in the air a few times to dodge attacks. He delivered a few simple kicks and punches here and there to keep the men fighting. His plan was to wear them out before making his big move.

Robin made a small mistake at one time, and a hand seized his arm. With a sharp yell, Robin was suddenly airborne from the man throwing him. The teen landed with a big splash into the cold waters of the pier. Robin yelled at himself in his head for being so stupid as he made his way to the surface.

With a small gasp, Robin broke the surface of the water. His teeth chattered as the coldness of the murky water took a hold onto his small body. The water was freezing, and all he wanted to do was get out of there. At this time he realized that maybe this position was for the better as he watched the fight unfold on the docks. Five strong guys against Batman. Robin decided that Bats needed a bit of help.

Robin bit his lower lip as he pushed the thought of feeling cold away. He swam up to the dock and went under it. He could clearly hear all the creaking and thumping from the footsteps above it. These wooden docks were old, and one hard misplaced kick or punch could bring some of it down.

The wheels in the teen's head were whirling at light speed by now. He listened for a few more minutes to recognize whose footsteps belong to whom. He got the idea where one of the guys on the dock was, and that was when he put his plan into action. The boy pushed himself to face down to the bottom of the water and pushed off the bottom of the deck with his feet.

_Snap! Crack!_

A yell escaped one of the guy's mouth as he came splashing down into the water as the plank he was on suddenly snapped right under his feet. Robin swam up to the surface again and saw that his plan was a success and smiled. He then frowned when he realized that the guy who fell into the freezing water wasn't very happy with him.

"You little brat!" the man seethed through clenched teeth. He dove after Robin, and the boy had no time to react. A small cry of alarm managed to escape the teen's mouth before the man landed on him, and the two sunk to the bottom of the bay. Robin was close to panicking as two big hands wrapped around his throat and started to squeeze with no mercy.

Robin was almost out of air in seconds. His back lightly touched the muddy bottom of the bay. He brought up his knee and slammed it into the man's chest and forced the guy off him. His lungs pleaded for the sweet taste of air by now. Robin kicked his way to the surface and gasped for air. Maybe knocking that guy off the dock wasn't such a good idea.

A loud gasp of surprise came from Robin as he was suddenly pulled back down under water. Robin went into overdrive now. Determination was set in his eyes as he was forced into action. He grabbed his grappling hook out of his belt and used its cord to tie around the hand holding on his ankle. He then swam down and grabbed the guy's other hand. He quickly tied both of his hands together and then aimed his gadget at where he thought a building would be. He hoped that he was right about his aim, but it was now or never.

Robin pulled the trigger and was pushed down into the water more as the man took off in the opposite direction. The teen then pressed another button on his grappling hook and took off after the man. He shot out of the water and landed on the ground next to the docks. His aim had been perfect and this made the teen smile again.

"Having trouble, Robin?" Batman asked the teen while putting a hand on his sidekick's shoulder. Robin jumped and this surprised Batman a little. Usually the kid never got scared that way.

"I…I'm okay," Robin said while shivering in the wind. He was disappointed that he had only taken down one guy even though the plan was to take down two of them.

"Are you sure?" Batman asked him while looking his son over. The boy was shivering uncontrollably and he was soaked from head to toe. His short, spiky hair was now hanging in his face, and he looked miserable like this.

"I'm good," Robin said with a small nod. "I might just need a blanket."

Batman paused before answering. It was clear that Robin was not okay. He was shaken up a little from this battle, and he was defiantly going to get a cold from staying in that cold water for so long. Bruce was extremely proud of his son for trying to pull through and using his head in battle so well, but he felt like punishing Richard for staying in the water for so long and being so stubborn.

"A leader always needs to push through tough times," Batman finally said with a nod. "Let's go."

"Okay," Robin said with a small nod. He clutched his shoulders and shivered constantly to stay warm a little. He gritted his teeth through the bitter cold and the voice in the back of head telling him to just quit. His body was yelling at him to go home and sleep for once. Sooner than later this small teen was going to collapse from this much pressure.

* * *

"Morning, Master Dick!" Alfred greeted Richard the next morning cheerfully. He opened up the binds to his window and let in the sun light. Richard sat up in bed with his hair sticking up in different places. His nose was red, and he was all pale and sweaty.

"Oh my!" Alfred cried while taking a good look at the boy. "You look dreadfully sick, Master Dick!"

Richard stared ahead with a dazed expression on his face. He sneezed loudly and then looked over to the butler with a wince. Alfred gave him a tissue box, and Richard used it at once. His body felt so weak and defeated. His head spun from just sneezing, and he felt like he couldn't breathe right.

"I'll be fine, Alfred," Dick said with a small sniff. "Just give me some medicine and I'll be good in a few minutes." He got out of bed and had to hold onto his head that spun out of control and protested against that sudden move.

"This is nonsense!" Alfred said while catching the boy before he fell. "You're staying home today."

Richard gave a frustrated grunt as millions of thoughts bombarded his mind. "But I have my grades to keep up!" he said to Alfred. "I have a team to train and patrol tonight! I don't have time to get freaking sick! I can't stay in bed all day while I fail in school and as a leader."

"I'm sorry, Master Dick," Alfred said calmly. He looked down at the boy with pity in his eyes. "But I have to say that I strongly protest against what you plan to do."

Richard sneezed again and gave a small moan. Today would be hell, but this teen was beginning to realize that he would go through even that to prove Batman wrong and get this team of his. "I have responsibilities, Alfred," Dick said while getting out of bed. "I'll be fine. Don't worry."

A/N: Fine is the last thing on my mind. I told you guys that I would be pushing this teen beyond his limits. This is only the beginning. I hoped you liked this chapter. Please give a review! Thanks!


	5. Chapter 5 New Friend Fluffy

A/N: Don't know how to make Switched Lives chapter any better at this moment, so I'm going to work on this chapter for a few minutes till I get the other one down. I have this fan fiction's plot all planned out and it is really a Writer's Block or Plan B fic. So I'm sorry if the writing is kind of crappy at times. I don't spend much time on it. But thanks for the reviews and please keep them up! Enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: You know the drill. Don't own them!

Chapter 5 New Friend Fluffy

"And please," Dick pleaded with his team, "Don't use your powers here! And don't make me go all Nazi on you guys for doing something stupid. Got it?"

Lilly smiled when he used her nickname for him as they all nodded. They were just glad that they had a day off after having ice cream the other day. It must have been because of Dick's new cold that he had suddenly gotten over night. His team guessed it was from school or because of something he did on patrol. Lilly said that the ice cream had been too much for him and that was where he had gotten the cold.

The kids quickly took off into the field with smiles. Alex was the only one not grinning from ear to ear. He sat off to the side of the field under a tree and banged his head to his music playing as loud as he wanted it to. The other three quickly picked up a game of soccer that looked like it wouldn't go very far with the way they were acting. Josh kept screaming every time he had to kick the ball, and Lilly yelled at him every time from annoyance. Amelia would always scold her for that. And it would go round and round.

Richard shook his head as he watched the kids in action. All their personalities collided with a huge explosion. He just knew that Batman did that on purpose. He had to somehow pull them together and bond. The poor boy gave a sigh as he wondered how the heck he was going to do that.

The teen sat down while blowing his nose. He had a small tissue box in one hand, the morning paper in the other. Richard had taken about ten pain killing pills to at lease feel okay to get out and go to the park with his team. He could barely read the paper as he sat there sniffing every so often. This was just torture!

"_This sucks!"_ he thought while opening up the paper. _"I'm sick, I have school and grades to keep up, I have patrol every night, and I also have a team to train. How could it get any worse? Wait. I don't want to answer that question. Bruce would defiantly have answer for it."_

The head lines quickly caught the boy's attention. **Serial Killer Strikes Again!** Dick's eyes went wide with surprise as he started to read the rest intently with interest on his face. He was so deep in thought that he didn't notice the lady who sat next to him was staring at him.

"A little young to be reading things like that," the lady said suddenly.

Richard gave a small jump and looked over to her. The lady looked to be in her late twenties or early thirties and had perfectly straight black hair and deep green eyes that could take any man's breath away. She wore a small gray skirt and white shirt. Small, oval glasses rested on the tip of her cute nose. She looked very classy and had to be a young business woman. She was only married to her work.

"The rest of the paper is too boring," Dick said with a sweet smile. He then sneezed loudly and blowed his nose once again while apologizing to the lady for his sick state just to be polite like he had been taught.

"Where did you get the cold?" the lady asked him with a small chuckle at his actions.

"Must have been school," Richard lied with a small shrug. He was a pretty good liar in front of anyone besides Alfred or Bruce. Those two were like Sherlock Holmes at that kind of stuff. It just amazed the boy.

"Hey, I know who you are!" the lady said with a smile coming to her lips. "You're Bruce Wayne's kid!"

"Yep!" Dick answered with a nod. _"How many times have a heard that one? Too many to count! She must be some new reporter who wants information about dad's work. Too bad she will only get bombed from a thirteen- year-old instead of getting her stupid information."_

"I know what you're thinking, Richard," the lady said. Dick glanced over to her with suspicion, and she smiled slyly at him. "You must think that I'm a reporter or journalist trying to make you spill the beans about your daddy. Well, yes, I'm a journalist. But I'm off duty. So let's just talk like normal people for now. But don't think that I won't pester you after this. It is my job, you know?"

Richard smiled. He liked this lady. She knew how to treat kids and teens his age. She didn't act like they were so lower to her, but she treated them like they were on her level, and he liked that a lot.

"So you know my name," Dick said while folding up his paper. "But I don't know you yours."

"Susan Miller," she said with a nod. "I'm a journalist. That story you were reading was mine. You like it?"

"You wrote this?" Richard asked her with surprise in his voice. "Cool! Then you must have been there to see the last victim. I wonder why she targets young male teens."

"She?" Susan asked him with suspicion in her voice. "How do you know that the Serial Killer is female?"

Richard kicked himself for letting that information slip off his tongue like that. "I just guessed it was a girl," Dick said with a simple shrug. "I like to use my imagination."

"Imagination is a wonderful thing," Susan said while staring at Richard with a smile spreading across her face. The boy didn't notice the lady watching him so closely because he was so focused on the kids starting to kill each other.

"Hey, Lilly!" Richard yelled at the girl from his seat. "Get off Amelia right now!" Josh wasn't in sight and this only made Dick made. He must have turned invisible, and he had ordered him not to use his powers. Of course, Alex was only watching Amelia and Lilly duel it out with fists and kicks.

"Don't make me come out there and make you get off each other!" Richard shouted to them again.

"Since when did you have to take care of these kids, Richard?" Susan asked him with confusion.

"The orphanage is a bit full, so my dad is taking care of these four," Richard answered quickly. "It's only for a little while, though."

"Bruce already has one teen to deal with," Susan said with a chuckle, "How is going to take care of these three?"

"Four," corrected her as his face somehow got paler than before. "The other one is gone."

* * *

They were all freaks that belonged to an insane asylum. That Lilly girl should have been the first to go. She was a total nut job that had many problems. She scared the crap out of poor Josh. She demanded power over the group if Alex wasn't saying anything, which was most of the time.

Josh walked down the small, dirt pathway in the park with a small smile coming to his lips. It was one of the first times he had smiled for that week he had stayed at Wayne Manor. School was boring because he was number one at everything. But he liked boring most of the time. His parents just wanted him to be a superhero because of his useful powers. He never wanted to be one. It was just way too scary.

The day was truly beautiful. The weather was just right, and a small wind picked up after a few seconds to cool the small boy off. He loved nature so much, and this park was a perfect oasis from the hectic world. After a few minutes of walking, the boy was slowly coming back to his normal self.

Suddenly there was some rustling from a bush behind Josh. He gave a short gasp of fright while turning around to see what it was. But he saw nothing there. Josh shrugged his shoulders and told himself that he was just being paranoid like he always was. After a few minutes he heard the same rustling, and he turned around once again. And again, there was nothing and he thought it had to an evil squirrel out to get him.

The rustling kept going, and it was starting to bug Josh. He finally summed up the courage to see exactly what it was that was making all the annoying sounds. He bent down next to the bush and bit his lower lip while questioning himself. He would have never done this before, but training to be a superhero was testing his wisdom. He wasn't getting scared as easily now.

Josh took a deep breath and pulled the thorny branches away. Two big, blue eyes looked up into his. Josh screamed loudly while turning invisible, and the gray fuzzy thing took off to another bush out of fright. Josh then realized that it was just as scared as he was of it. He had read that somewhere in a book.

The boy slowly scooted up to the bush the fuzzy thing had hid in while becoming visible again, and held out his hand to get the thing to come. Slowly but surely, the animal came out and inched towards his hand. Josh smiled widely when he saw that it was a small, fuzzy kitten. His eyes light up with happiness as the cute kitten decided to trust him as he picked it up and held it in his arms carefully.

"You're the only one nice to me in this whole city," Josh said to it while scratching it behind the ears. It stared to purr loudly and licked his fingers as if to repay him for his nice deed. Josh kept thinking and decided to bring the fuzz ball home with him. The others would never know if he put the kitten in the closet or something. He could feed it table scraps.

"Now, you need a name before I take you home," Josh said to the kitten. He looked her over and smiled while saying, "Fluffy would be perfect!" He then put Fluffy into his backpack and walked slowly back to where his team was.

* * *

"Where were you today, Josh?" Richard asked the boy at the dinner table. Bruce was gone for a few hours because it was real busy at work. Alfred was eating with Richard and his team that night and was finding it almost unbearable. They really didn't know very many table manners.

"Yeah, freak!" Lilly said while punching him in the arm.

"Hey!" Dick reprimanded the girl sharply. "Act civilized at the table at least." He then focused his attention back to Josh and put on a stern frown. He wasn't too happy that Josh had gone against his wishes and turned invisible. He had reappeared after they had looked for the boy for a full hour.

"I wanted some space," Josh answered quietly. He looked up at Richard with his face innocent and looking very sorry with himself. Richard sighed and gave him a nod of understanding. He would have done the same thing, really. Plus, it wasn't like Josh was troublesome like the others.

"Okay," Dick said while getting up. He started to collect the empty plates of the others while giving the kids some orders. "Either shower tonight or tomorrow morning. One hour free time in the house. Lights out at nine, though. Now off with you all, and don't bother Alfred with homework. Come to me if you need help. I'll be in the shower for a while."

The four scattered without a single word. All of them went different directions for reasons only they knew. Alfred stood up and took the plates Richard was collecting out of his hands with a faint smile. Dick smiled up at him while muttering thanks to the butler. He turned to leave, but Alfred put a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you feeling okay, Master Dick?" he asked the teen with concern in his voice. "You look paler than this morning. Maybe you should skip patrol tonight."

"After a shower I'll be better," Dick answered with a small sniff. "And the dinner was great, Alfred. The kids seemed to enjoy it as well." With that said, he took off to the main living room where the front door was along with the stairs to his room. He stopped when Bruce came in through the front door.

"You look sick," Bruce told Richard while looking at him closely.

"You didn't notice my condition this morning," Richard said while slowly climbing the stairs.

"I was busy," Bruce said in a rush of words. He avoided his son's stare because the boy had been right. Bruce didn't notice that his son had a cold that morning before he went to school.

"Busy drinking your coffee," Richard muttered under his breath. He then sneezed loudly and gave a small moan while covering his nose and running off to the bathroom with disgust. Bruce winced while watching him leave and walked into the giant kitchen where Alfred was washing dishes.

"Did you know that Richard was sick, Alfred?" Bruce asked the butler.

"Yes, Master Bruce," Alfred answered with a nod. He turned around with a sigh and said, "Maybe in his current condition he shouldn't go on patrol with you tonight. I've been worrying about him lately. He is…different."

"Different?" Bruce asked Alfred with confusion. He got out his cold dinner and heated it up in the microwave. "Alfred, he's just a teen. They change a lot. This is good for him. He needs to know who in charge of this house. He's been getting too cocky. Knocking off a few bars on his pride is not going to kill him."

"But what about his health?" Alfred asked. "And his cheery spirit is gone. I just don't see how this could help him. I…"

The butler stopped when Richard walked into the kitchen with his face blank of any emotion. He took an apple out of a dish on the counter and realized that the two men in the room were staring at him. "What?" he asked them with a confused look on his face. "I'm just a little hungry." He gave a small sniff and shrugged when no one said anything still.

Alfred looked to Bruce and gave him a look. Bruce crumbled under this look and walked over to his son. "You're not coming on patrol tonight, Dick," he told the teen sternly.

"What?" Richard yelled loudly. "I'm fine! Don't listen to Alfred! I can do this!"

"What did you say, Master Dick?" Alfred asked Richard while standing up. He was so angry with the boy he didn't give him time to answer. The butler lightly pushed Bruce away and yelled down to Richard, "For the past week I've been saying that you are being pushed too hard, but you have never once listened to me and did what I say. Are you daft, Richard? You're going to get yourself killed if you keep going on like this!"

Dick looked a bit freaked out from Alfred's sudden burst of anger. He had never once seen the man like this except for the one time he went on a shower fast and stunk so bad. The butler had to scream in his face like this to get his point across that the boy smelled like three thousand pigs.

Bruce stared at Alfred a bit shocked because he had rarely seen him do that as well. He covered up a small smile when he saw Richard totally crumble under the butler's fury. They both stared at each other for a while before Richard announced his defeat.

"Fine," he sighed while looking to the floor. "I'll skip patrol for just tonight. Happy now?"

Alfred smiled down at the boy and said, "Yes, very much, Master Dick. And I'm so sorry for my outburst."

"Because you're not getting your workout tonight," Bruce stepped in quickly with a wicked smile forming on his lips. "How 'bout we have a small training session right now? Leaders always have to be on their toes!"

"Master Bruce…" Alfred started but was cut off by Bruce grabbing Richard's arm and pretty much dragging the poor boy to the Bat Cave.

"Hey!" Alfred could hear Richard protest down the hall. There was a loud sneeze before the teen shouted, "I have homework to do! What the heck? This is so random!" Then the door shut, and that was the last Alfred heard of the two for the night.

* * *

"Crap, it hurts!" Richard muttered under his breath. He held onto his side that had gotten kicked a few hundred times in his long and painful training session with his father. The big bruise was a weird and funky looking purple mixed with green.

Bruce had laid down the rules while the two were having combat practice. Richard learned that to become a leader he would have to pass the final test with his team. The test was that the kids had to defeat Batman. But Robin could only give orders and was not aloud to do anything to Batman. Easier said then done, and the worry of it all was now pressuring down on the teen.

It was around eleven at night when Richard finished his shower and started to walk to his room. He stopped when there was a scratching noise coming from behind one of the doors to a supply closet. Richard raised an eyebrow and turned the door handle with much curiosity as to what was behind it.

He opened the door quickly and stepped back in surprise to see a small, fuzzy kitten staring at him with wide eyes. It then started to purr loudly like a tiger as it wove around the confused teen's legs. It meowed up to his as if begging for food.

"Please don't tell," came a soft voice from behind Richard. The teen spun around, almost tripping over the kitten while he was at it, and he saw Josh standing there looking to the floor with his hands behind his back and looking very sorry.

Richard put a finger to his lips as to tell Josh to be quiet. Josh looked at him confused while Dick picked up the fuzz ball of gray fur and quickly tip-toed to his room. He motioned for the kid to follow. Josh hesitated, but then tip-toed to Richard's room.

Dick closed his door and locked it just to make sure. He placed the kitten on his bed and sat down with Josh. The kitten started to purr again uncontrollably as it melted under the scratches behind its ears that Dick was giving him. He smiled down at the animal, and this made Josh smile too. He hadn't seen Richard like this ever before. Maybe there was more to his crazy teacher than what he thought.

"So what's her name?" Richard asked Josh with a smile.

"Fluffy," Josh said with a nod.

"It's perfect," Dick said. "Aw, she's sweet. So that's why you were gone so long in the park. She's a beauty!" He then smiled when he saw Josh relax and give a small giggle. Richard knew Josh probably didn't want to be trained to be a superhero and that the boy lacked boldness and courage. But maybe if this boy had someone who understood him more he would act braver in battles.

"And to answer your question, Josh," Richard said, "I won't tell anyone about Fluffy. You're secrete is safe with me. But you might want to keep her out of the storage closet where Alfred keeps all his supplies. I might be able to keep her here for a while. You can visit her all you want. How does that sound?"

"Um…good," Josh said with a wide grin spreading over his face. "And I don't want to keep her for long because what if she belongs to someone else? I don't want to steal their kitten."

"Hm…" Dick thought out loud. "I could ask around school if they lost a kitten. You can do the same. But I think that's cool that you want to return her to her owner."

"Really?" Josh asked him.

"Yep," Dick answered with a nod. "Now, you need to get to sleep. And if you need help on anything, don't be afraid to ask me. Remember, I'm not just your leader. I'm also a friend on your side."

Josh smiled and walked over to the door. Before leaving he said over his shoulder, "Thanks."

"No problem, Josh," Dick answered. As soon as the door closed he gave a big sigh. He looked down to Fluffy rubbing against his hand for more scratches. "You're cute," he told her, "But you might become a problem. Don't get too attached to the poor boy or he might get hurt when Bruce with his cat allergies finds out. And that will be sooner than later, I can swear to you that."

A/N: Fluffy is so cute! I have two cats and they are so adorable, so I had to put a kitten in here to make my readers say, "AW!" I hoped you liked the chapter and please don't forget to give a review. Thanks!


	6. Chapter 6 Bowling Alley Blues

A/N: Here is another chapter. I hope you picked up some of my few obvious clues I left behind from my last chapter. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Last time I checked I didn't own Alfred, Batman, or Robin. I don't think I own them still.

Chapter 6 Bowling Alley Blues

"What is with all this water?" Lilly asked Robin while glaring up at him. The team was lugging in a ton of milk cartons of water to their warehouse, and it was obvious that they were heavy.

"You'll see," Robin said with a sly smile.

"Why do you have to keep everything secret till the last moment?" Lilly asked him.

"When I keep you guessing, I keep you on your toes," Robin answered with a nod. "If I'm boring as my monotone History teacher then you would be snoring like freight trains. And we are not a team when everyone is sleeping. Does that answer your question?"

"Yeah," Lilly muttered. "But I still don't like it."

"I didn't say you had to," Robin said with another smile. He turned his head around and yelled to the rest of the team, "Pick up the pace back there!"

The five finally made it to the warehouse, and the kids collapsed on the ground after setting down their gallons on the floor. Robin smiled down at them while thinking a few things to himself. To be a good fighter you had to be strong both physically and mentally. After a few days of molding these kids into what he wanted them to be, he could see them grow more.

"Okay, team, break time is done. Everyone on their feet," he said while opening the lids of the water filled milk cartons. He heard some groans from the group, but they obeyed anyway. Robin stepped back and looked at each kid for a few seconds as if sizing them all up.

"This practice session is for me to see all your powers," Robin said. "Spread out and warm up. I want to see your very best today. After I know what you can do, we can then make some moves or see where you need to get better. Got it?"

All the kids nodded. Amelia walked up to him, and Robin already knew what she was going to ask. He simply pointed to the milk cartons silently. She gave a sigh and slowly walked over to them as he smiled again.

"Alex!" Robin said while walking over to him. Alex looked up to him silently and narrowed his eyes a little. "You're first!" Robin said. He stood beside the kid and nodded for him to go ahead.

"Fine," Alex muttered. "Might want to step back a little." Robin did what he said and watched him closely. Alex gave a few slow and deep breaths with his eyes closed. He then opened them and snapped his fingers. A big explosion of fire sparked up right in front of his hand. It then looked like he grabbed the ball of fire and held it in his hand and rolled it into a perfect ball with his two hands.

"It's strange to see you not get burned," Robin observed. "I'm guessing you're fireproof."

"Yeah," Alex said. "My whole body can be set on fire if I wanted it to," he added while punching the air. A long stream of fire flew out of it, and the heat made Robin take one more step back. "But that can only happen when I'm really mad. Anger is the emotion that triggers most of my moves." Robin noticed the hint of deep pain in the kid's eyes.

"Remind me not to get on your bad side then," Robin said with a chuckle. "You have a lot of power. You're done." He then moved onto Josh, and it was easy for the kid to turn invisible all the time. Robin then moved onto Lilly. Fear was the main emotion there.

"Aren't you going to do anything?" Robin asked the girl. She was only standing in the middle of the room looking bored.

"I have light powers," Lilly muttered while rolling her eyes. "All I can do is amplify any kind of light and made some stupid shield."

Robin raised an eyebrow in interest and asked, "Could you show me the shield?"

"Have it your way, pretty boy," Lilly said. She then put her hands together like she was praying and mouthed the words to some chant that she had memorized with her eyes closed. When she opened them, they were a very light blue color as her body slowly started to glow this same color.

"Tell me if you feel this," Robin said. He brought his foot up and gave a small battle cry while kicking her stomach as hard as he could. It felt like he hit rock and he stumbled back in pain. "OUCH!" he yelled loudly while hopping around holding his poor foot.

"I don't feel a thing," Lilly said evilly to him. "I might say that its stupid, but that doesn't mean that it's not powerful." She then laughed at him till he finally calmed down and could talk without wincing every few seconds.

"Nice," he muttered to her with a pretend glare. "Where did you figure out to do that one?"

Lilly shrugged and said, "A dream." He gave her a strange look and she said, "I said I got it from a dream. Stop looking at me like I'm some freak!"

"You're a freak even if I look at you like you're one or not," Robin said. "I'm through with you. I'm on to cheerleader girl."

"You go have fun with that!" Lilly yelled back to him. Robin smiled a little from his small win. When you talked in Lilly's language her insults were nothing and more funny than anything else. And she seemed to like him more when he trudged over to her country. It was fun to interact with her that way.

"What can you do?" Robin asked the girl while walking up next to her. "Show me your stuff."

"I have to have complete concentration," Amelia said quietly. One of Robin's eyebrows rose as he watched her work her magic. She made the water in the gallons rise into the air and hover a few feet above the ground. She then danced around the place with the water following her hand movements. She ended it quickly and smiled up to Robin.

"Okay," Robin said to his team. "I want you guys to think about how to perfect these powers of yours. Dwell deeply on it and focus most of your attention on your moves. You will need a strong body and mind to be a good superhero. I'll put you through hard mental problems that also will include physical stuff. Got it?"

The kids nodded with smiles on their faces. Robin nodded back to them and was delighted than they were taking him serious now and were happy as to where they were at. He would push them harder each day, though, till they were perfect. Then they could take on the greatest challenge of them all. Defeating the Batman.

* * *

The sweat pored down Robin's forehead as he fumbled for his grappling hook quickly. He kept running at a fast pace over the roof top with Batman straight ahead of him. The teen bared his teeth with determination as he aimed his gadget at a higher roof top and swung up to it. He landed there in a crouch and barely gave himself some time to gather his senses before he took off after their target that they had been chasing for around an hour now.

She was fast! She also knew the city well, because they frequently lost her in dark alley ways and other places as she led them all around Gotham City. They had spotted her stealing some jewelry at a store and, she had sped off before they could get their hands on her.

"Pick up the pace!" Batman snapped back to Robin harshly before jumping off the roof and down onto another.

Robin frowned while following right behind him. He would prove himself tonight that he was just as fit even if he was sick or not. He had missed patrol last night, and he didn't want to do that again. He ran faster even though his legs almost felt like rubber from all his jumping, flipping, and nonstop chasing.

The teen whipped out a bird-a-rang as he came up to Batman's side. He gave a small battle yell while throwing the thing into the air while taking quick aim. His aim was dead on, and the victim made a small noise when the gadget sliced through her arm.

"Next time aim for her legs," Batman said to Robin while passing him. Robin only shook his head in frustration while he stuck his hand into the air and caught the bird-a-rang. He glared at the Dark Knight as he kept up his pace.

The girl knew she was hurt, so now she had to get away somehow. She kicked an air vent on a roof off of a bowling alley building and jumped into it. Batman and Robin were right behind her. Batman jumped in first. Robin stopped at the vent and gulped in some air to catch his breath because his lungs felt like they were on fire. So Alfred was right about patrol when sick, but he wasn't going to give up now.

Robin jumped into the vent and slid around before he fell into the dark room of the bowling alley. He landed on a bright, orange chair that was lit up because all the black lights were on for some reason that night even though the building was closed. Robin looked down and gasped when he saw Batman knocked out on the floor next to the chair.

"Old Bats didn't see the bowling ball that hit him," a voice came out into the dark. Suddenly a glowing, pink ball was flying towards him. Robin gave a sharp yell while jumping off the seat and landing with a tuck roll before getting to his feet.

"You're fast kid," the thief said as she came into view. She stood on a computer that would keep your bowling scores in it, and in her hands was a lime green glowing ball. Anything with bright colors stood out a lot in this huge room. Robin cringed as he realized that he was a flashing billboard in this room because of his bold colored uniform. She would be able to see him clearly in here.

"Hand over the jewels," Robin said while trying to keep his voice steady. He knew that this girl had to be good to sneak up on Batman and knock him out. She was skilled beyond his years, maybe. It was up to him to take her down.

"How old are you, Robin?" the girl asked him while looking at the boy with interest in her deep, green eyes. She wore tight, black pants with a small dark purple skirt. Her black top was just as tight, and it was long sleeved. It looked like she was wearing a jumpsuit with her gloves and boots the same color. A red mask covered the upper half of her face and had small holes in it for her eyes to stare out of. Her black hair was put up in a tight ponytail that swished around when she moved her head.

"This is no time to be getting to know each other," Robin spat out while taking up a fighting position. "All I want are those jewels returned to their owner and you in jail."

"Oh, serious one, aren't you, Robin?" the thief said with a wicked smile crossing her lips. "Then how 'bout we go to it. I'll let you have this bag of jewels, kid, only if you can get to them," she said while throwing the bag to one of the seats. "Bats will be out for a few more minutes, so we will have some time together."

Robin was bit confused. Usually these things were not in his power to decide over. Batman did that sort of thing. The teen then smiled when he saw his big opening. If he did this he would really prove his skill as a leader to Batman. He gave the girl a cocky smile and nodded.

The teen made the first move for the bag. He skidded to a stop when the thief landed in front of him. He rolled through her legs, but the girl grabbed him from behind and flipped the poor boy over her head. Robin landed on his feet and ducked as a hard roundhouse kick was aimed for his face. He dropped to the floor and tried to trip her, but she easily jumped in time.

Robin stood up after his leg sweep and was suddenly seized from behind. His arms were pinned to his sides and his chest was slowing being crushed by the girl's amazing unknown strength.

"So how do you like yesterday's headlines?" she randomly asked Robin while keeping a steady pressure on his chest. The teen winced in pain as he kicked his feet in the air. "My beautiful work is being known all over this city now. I'm glad everyone likes it so far. They just gulp all those gruesome stories up."

"You're the serial killer!" Robin gasped while panic started to rise in his chest. **"She targets young male teens."** Those words flashed into the teen's head. He suddenly felt terribly alone as he was stuck in a hold by the most dangerous criminal in Gotham City at the time being.

"Bingo," she said with a small giggle. "But I can't play with you too long tonight, kid. Bats could wake anytime by now."

Robin slammed his head backwards and knocked right into the killer's nose. She gave a sharp cry while letting him go. Robin ran up to Batman and shook him a few times to get him awake. He was stuck in a room with a crazy serial killer that was targeting him right now, and it was kind of scary.

"Don't you want to talk, Robin?" the thief asked him. Robin turned around and ducked from a kick. He rolled out of the way of another quick attack. He got to his feet and suddenly sneezed loudly. "Aw, has the baby bird caught a cold?" she asked him with some pretend sympathy in her voice.

"How many times have a heard that one?" Robin muttered to her. He told his mind to calm down as he forced himself to get serious. His panic was gone as he came at her with a punch. She dodged this move but wasn't able to avoid his swift, sharp kick he executed right after his first attack that was aimed for her mid section.

She backed up with a loud gasp for air. She glared at Robin as he smiled slyly at her. "No more miss nice girl," the thief muttered while suddenly throwing herself at the teen. Robin had no time to react, and he was suddenly flying into the air. He landed in a bowling lane on his side with a small wince and after sliding for a few seconds finally stopping.

Robin got to his feet quickly and slipped on the wax kind of stuff on the alley. He looked around the room in search for the killer, but she was no where to be seen. The whole place was lit up with glowing colors. Robin thought that the thief had taken off to escape.

The teen saw how wrong he was when a foot slammed into the side of his head and knocked him into the next lane with a loud thud. He landed on his back and looked up just in time to see the girl land beside him. He tried to get up, but she suddenly sat on his chest and pinned his arms and legs down to the slippery floor.

"I want to give you a taste of what I can do to you, Robin," she said with a wicked smile coming to her face. Her eyes lit up evilly as she took out a sharp knife from somewhere in the dark. She laughed out loud in delight when she saw Robin's eyes go wide in surprise and panic. "Now, what should I do with you?" she asked him with her voice sounding like a demon in Robin's ears.

"No! Stop!" Robin yelled while struggling with all his might to get free. _Come on Bruce!_ He pleaded in his head to the knocked out hero laying a few feet away from him. _I know that you're an over protective parent at times and I hate you for it, but right now would be a good time to wake up and help me!_

The killer giggled gleefully when Robin winced when she rested the tip of her cool blade on his neck. Robin glared at her with anger burning in his eyes for how close she was getting to him. The girl was clearly mental and desperately needed to be sent to the insane asylum. If Batman was not going to get him out of this mess, he would have to take things into his own hands.

Robin took out a bird-a-rang from his belt and flipped the blades out silently. The thief was too occupied with her own sick happiness of seeing the pretend panic and pain on the teen's face to even notice that he was now holding his own weapon.

"You need to get a life," Robin hissed up to her while slicing her ankle and drawing blood.

The girl did nothing but stare at her new open wound with puzzlement on her face. She looked back down to Robin and smiled. "It has been fun, bird boy," she said. "But I need to leave. But beware, kid, because I'm not through with you just yet. My next victim might just be you. I can't wait for that time."

"I'll stop you before you touch another victim," Robin spat back at her.

"We'll see, kid," she said with a smile. She then took out two silver balls and threw them down on the ground. They exploded and a big cloud of dust flew up around the hero and thief. Robin coughed a few times and realized that the serial killer was gone once the dust cleared, and so was the bag of jewels.

"No," Robin muttered while still on his back in the middle of the bowling alley. He banged his head onto the wooden surface in frustration. He was just glad that whole freak show was done for the time being. He suddenly saw Batman looking down at him with a frown planted on his face like always.

"What happened?" he asked his sidekick. He offered a hand out to the teen, and Robin took it gratefully. "You're hurt," he stated while pointing to Robin's neck.

"Yeah," Robin muttered bitterly. _No thanks to you._ He wiped away the small bit of blood the thief's knife had drawn. He sneezed again and didn't notice Batman's watchful eyes staring at him with question. "She got away," he said to Batman. "She knows a lot of moves and I couldn't stop her."

"Anything else?" Batman asked him. "You look really shaken up. Do you need to go home?"

"It's probably the lighting," Robin answered. For some reason he didn't want to include the part in which she was the serial killer. If he said that, then he knew Bruce would freak out and keep him inside all day and night. His training as leader would be put to an end, and patrol would get band for months. He couldn't tell Batman what was going on.

A/N: Freaky, no? I think this girl is one of my scariest creations. Now Robin has to avoid a killer while juggling everything else. It just keeps getting better! Please note the sarcasm. Please give a review! Thanks!


	7. Chapter 7 Timeout

A/N: Okay, first off, I'm deeply and terribly sorry for not updating in what seemed like months! I have two main fics out that I like to update regularly and then I have my other crossover fic that has been going so smoothly that I kind of forgot about this fic. But with the persistent asking of my little sister, Debbie, I got back into the swing of things and went ahead with this fic with a smile on my face. I really do enjoy writing this one. I hope you forgive me and give a review. Thanks!

Disclaimer: Just like I own a car I own some of these characters. (I don't own a car…yet.)

Chapter 7 Timeout

Bruce gave a relaxed sigh as he walked out of his study at around nine or ten at night. He had finally gotten done with most of his work that he had to do at home. He felt relieved and very happy that he had accomplished something important.

The house was quiet for a change. The kids were put to sleep an hour ago and Alfred must have been reading something downstairs in the living room or doing some dusting in the Bat Cave. Richard was…where was that boy? He should be getting ready for patrol.

Bruce stopped in his tracks as he walked into the kitchen. He watched silently as his son crawled under the table calling for something. He frowned when Richard whispered a curse as he came up with nothing. Bruce shook his head while walking up to Dick and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Richard went into freak out mode by this one touch. He gave a loud battle yell while grabbing Bruce's wrist and trying to fling the man around and throw him into a wall. Bruce had taught him this move and easily knew how to counter attack it. He quickly grabbed his son's wrist and pulled the light boy towards him. Richard stumbled with a sharp yell of surprise and was quickly stuck in a tight hold around his shoulders and his back pressed up against Bruce's chest.

There was silence in the kitchen for a few seconds as Richard told himself to calm down from the sudden scare as Bruce looked down at his son with great worry in his eyes. Richard had never once done that before to him. Why would he be so sensitive today?

"You can let me go," Dick said to Bruce while struggling to get out of the grip. Bruce said nothing and smiled slyly down at the boy as all his squirming and twisting was getting him nowhere. Richard gave a sigh and said, "Sorry for attacking you. I don't know what hit me."

"Maybe all this stress about your team is getting to you," Bruce said. "Maybe you should just give it all up now. You know that you can't win, Richard."

Dick rolled his eyes while going back to his worthless struggling. "I'm not admitting defeat," he muttered. "I'm fine." He didn't want to say that the real reason he had freaked out on him was because of all the threats of the serial killer. He would soon be next on her list. That was all he could think about that day in school, and the more he thought about it the more it started to scare him. What if things turned out exactly like in the bowling alley? She had been toying with him there. He would be a goner if that happened.

"Hey, relax, Richard," Bruce said calmly to his son. Dick gave a small sigh as Bruce rested his chin on his son's shoulder and went from keeping Richard in a tight hold, to lightly embracing him in his own way of showing his love for his boy.

"I need to get ready," Dick muttered.

"You have a half an hour," Bruce said. "Why can't you just relax for a few seconds? What happened to my energetic, peppy son?"

"He has responsibilities," Richard said with a joking smile. "He has a team to lead, school, and patrol. He also is having less sleep and just got over a cold. You're son is getting older, Bruce, and you can't change that. Let it go."

"Tough and serious one, ay?" Bruce said slyly. "I know how to make you relax." He started to rub and massage Richard's back. He smiled in triumph when he felt his son relax all his tension and let his dad do an act of kindness for him for once. Bruce understood that his son didn't like other's doing things for him, but once in a while he would let his dad do this.

"Aw, you're evil," Dick said with a small laugh. He winced when Bruce rubbed a knot out of his back. "Avoid the knots, Bruce. That was painful!"

"Quit your whining, Dick," Bruce commanded. "You have three knots in your back! Okay, I would call that stress. Maybe this whole team is too much."

Richard glared straight ahead with disgust on his face. Leave it to old Bruce to screw up a father-son moment! It was almost impossible to live with his father now. The two were too much alike. Even now, the two were battling it out to see who could a win a simple test of endurance over this team. So far Dick was losing miserably and Bruce knew it all too well and was attacking him at the worst of times.

Suddenly Fluffy walked past the door on the other side of the kitchen. Bruce had been too focused on something else to notice the fuzzy kitten walking casually by the doorway. Richard held back a small gasp of panic as he saw the animal. That was the thing he had been looking for before he attacked Bruce.

"Okay, enough love for one day!" Dick said quickly. He pulled out of his father's grip and bolted in the direction Fluffy had gone. How she got out of his room left Richard baffled, but he would be dead if Alfred or Bruce found out.

"Where are you going, Richard?" Bruce asked him sternly while coming after him.

"Crap!" Dick whispered to himself while picking up the kitten. He ran down the hallway, going the long way around the house to get back to the kitchen. When he got to the kitchen, he could still hear his father calling after him. Richard cringed as he flung himself behind one of the big counters in the middle of the room.

"Richard!" Bruce yelled while suddenly coming into the kitchen with confusion sweeping over his steady face. He then frowned while yelling, "You better show yourself right now!"

Richard didn't dare obey him because Bruce finding him with Fluffy would not be a good sight at this moment. The teen held his breath while trying his best to keep the fluff ball in his arms to settle down and stop squirming. It then meowed.

The teen froze as his eyes went wide in horror. Bruce stopped looking around and listened closely to see if his ears had been right. Richard then looked down and winced as the kitten meowed again. Dick stayed quiet and it sounded like Bruce had gone out of the room because it was in complete silence. He smiled slightly to himself in relief. He was so grateful that Bruce hadn't heard Fluffy.

Richard stood up while scratching Fluffy behind the ears. It stared to purr loudly, like it always did. The happy feeling quickly vanished when two big hands grabbed onto his shoulders and held him firmly there. Richard could feel the anger of his father without evening having to look at him. When Dick was little, he had brought in every kind of pet and tried to hide it from Bruce. It never worked and it only made the man angry so that one day he swore that if Dick ever brought in another pet he could be considered dead.

"Bye!" Dick said quickly. He dropped to his knees and instantly was free from the grasp on his shoulders because Bruce had been crouching on the counter to sneak up on him. The teen clutched the kitten to his chest while rolling to one side and jumping to his feet in seconds. He then took off down the hallway in a sprint to get away from his father.

"Bad move!" Bruce shouted after his son. The boy knew better than to bring another animal home. Bruce could already feel his eyes swelling up a bit and his nose getting stuffy because of his allergies. Wait till he got his hands on him! The man jumped off the counter and ran after Dick.

Dick was almost in panic mode as he ran down the hall. There was no safe place to go in this house and he knew that fact very well. Not even the roof was a good hiding place even though it was very easy for Richard to get up there. But the only good thing to do was to hide from Bruce and wait it out till the man calmed down. Where was the best place to hide?

Richard gulped down a lump of fear in his throat when his mind came up with the Bat Cave. Big, dark, and mysterious, it was the perfect place. It would be really risky going in there, and Richard was never the one who loved the dark when his father was after him. It was kind of scary. But it was the only good and sensible choice at the moment.

Bruce quickly followed the teen down into the dim cave. Richard had never had the guts to hide from him down here in the dark. But the teen wanted to play hide and seek, so Bruce was going to give it to him. But the boy forgot that his father was someone who loved the dark. He was the Batman for goodness sake! Of course he had the upper hand in this small battle.

"So you want to play games, Richard?" Bruce asked his son from the top of the stairs. He couldn't see Dick, but he knew for sure that he was down there somewhere hiding with that kitten of his. "Fine," Bruce said with his voice having a dark tone to it just like the Batman's. "Let's play."

Bruce locked the door behind him and didn't turn on the lights on his way down the stairs. He heard a faint meow and a "Shh!" to keep the animal quiet. Bruce smiled wickedly at the sound and slowly started to head toward it. If Richard was smart, he would be trying to move from his first position.

Richard _was_ smart. The boy bit his lower lip while crawling on his hands and knees silently away from the table he had been hiding behind. He couldn't see a dang thing! _I should eat more carrots,_ Richard thought randomly to himself. It struck him kind of funny that his thoughts were so weird at such a time like this. His father and him were playing an extreme game of hide and seek in a pitch-black basement and all he could think about was how he needed to eat more carrots for better vision.

Bruce waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room. After a few silent minutes, he could finally make out a few figures. He let himself express a sly smile when noticing a moving white figure that just had to be Richard with his white T-shirt. Bruce looked down and saw that he was wearing a navy blue shirt. Dick wouldn't be able to see him in these kinds of conditions.

The man slowly and noiselessly headed for the faint, white shirt. He blinked a few times then stopped in his tracks. The shirt was gone! Where did the boy go? He had taught the kid a little too well. He hesitantly took a few steps forward then cried out in surprise when tripping over something.

Richard smiled proudly at his swift move as he heard his dad fall over his extended leg from where he sat behind another table. He clutched the kitten to his chest when getting to his feet and running to another hiding place. His father must have gotten used to the dark and could see him by now because of his shirt. Next time the teen was going to think before coming down here.

Well if Bruce was going to come after his shirt, then it had to come off. Richard quickly took off the white shirt and shivered a little in the coldness of the basement. He held the warm kitten up to his bare chest and then smiled slyly while flinging the fabric at his father then silently went to another hiding place.

There was a pause in the darkness till Richard heard Bruce say, "You got to be kidding me, Dick. I now have a shirtless kid running around in my dark basement. This can't be healthy." Richard couldn't help but give a small laugh at the thought, but he quickly got control over himself.

"Now you're laughing," Bruce muttered while looking around the room. "Just think about your punishment afterwards and that will shut you up right away." Richard didn't answer and stayed in his spot while listening closely to his father's footsteps. He couldn't trust his eyes in his situation.

"So tell me, Richard," Bruce asked his son after a frustrated sigh. "Why did you bring the thing in here?"

"Not mine!" Richard yelled suddenly so that his voice would bounce off the walls and come back at both of them a million times. "She's Josh's!" he yelled again and smiled as he heard his sentence coming back at him a few times. His father would never be able to distinguish where it had come from this way.

"Then how come you are so willing to take the price for it being in here?" Bruce asked him.

Richard slowly stood up while not answering the question. He had lost his father's footsteps and didn't know where the guy was anymore. He was about to take another step but suddenly the room was flooded with light because someone had turned it on and opened the door from the outside.

"FLUFFY!" Josh yelled down into the room before seeing the two in there.

Richard had no time to act. His eyes had gotten so used to the dark that it hurt to open them in this new bright light. He still couldn't see anything while Bruce had somehow heard the door open and was able to close his eyes before the lights had came on. He could see just fine.

Josh stood in shock when seeing Bruce quickly take down his son in seconds. He suddenly saw that Robin had let go of Fluffy and the kitten ran under a table to hide. Richard gave a small yell of frustration of his humiliating defeat as his chest was shoved down on the cold, metal floor with his hands pinned behind him.

"There you are, Fluffy!" Josh said while bounding down the stairs to collect his little animal. Bruce sat on top of his beaten son with a smug smile on his lips as he looked down at him. Richard started to squirm to get out of the hold. He quickly stopped with a wince as his dad put more pressure on his chest. He wasn't going anywhere.

"Josh," Bruce said to the boy who was holding his pet and not paying any attention to the family before him. He guessed that was what the two usually did because it seemed like Robin didn't like his father too much, and Bruce never really showed much attention to him.

Josh looked up at the man when his name was called. He couldn't help but chuckle at the position his leader was in. He was so used to seeing Robin kick his and the other kid's butts. Right now, seeing his leader like this, could be a once in a lifetime thing for him to witness.

"Take the thing up to your room," Bruce said calmly to the boy. "Alfred will talk to you about it in the morning. Have a good sleep." Josh thought that the man was kind of nice and thanked him with a weak smile while heading for his room. Right when the door closed the attitude of the man changed.

"Here it comes," Richard muttered to himself. _I'm dead now. I should have never taken care of Fluffy. Stupid cat put me in this position. But I had to do it to win the trust of Josh. Plus, the thing was just too fluffy to kick out of the house._

"Nice trick with the echo," Bruce said down to his son. "It worked and was quick thinking. But that won't change my mind about punishing you. Now, what should I do with my misbehaving son this time?"

"Not make me go to school for the rest of my life?" Richard suggested weakly. He winced again as his dad applied more pressure to make the boy shut his quick mouth. "You asked," Dick muttered up to him.

"I could ground you, but what would that do?" Bruce asked while tapping his chin in thought. "Taking away your team would be a little bit too extreme. Plus, I like seeing you suffer with them around."

"No questions there," Richard murmured.

"How 'bout one of your old punishments?" Bruce asked him with a wicked smile coming to his face. "You deserve a timeout."

"Oh crap," Dick muttered. "Oh! C'mon, Bruce! Don't!"

"With your protests I think it will do you some good," Bruce said. He picked up his son and dragged him to his big chair in front of his computer. The whole time Richard complained about the matter as he desperately tried to get away. He was fruitless in this matter, and just ended up tied to the chair with a cord tightly holding his small body there.

"Comfy?" Bruce asked him sardonically. Dick only gave him a dirty glare and decided to not answer any of his father's questions. Bruce just shrugged and pulled up a stool to sit on. He booted up his computer and typed in a few passwords. "We'll skip patrol tonight. Last night gave me a big bump on the head from a bowling ball. Who knew that lady could throw something that heavy so quickly. But I decided to look into this Serial Killer and see if I can track the person down or figure out who the person's next target is."

Richard glanced up at his father with some fright in his eyes. He knew who the next target was. He was tied up to a chair right in front of the man. Dick then looked down when he saw that his dad had noticed his expression even though the kid had let out such little emotion.

"You okay, Dick?" Bruce asked his son with some concern in his voice.

"I'm stuck to a stupid chair because of a freaking cat," Richard said to him sarcastically. "I'm fine."

Bruce pondered the thought of keep asking his son questions, but he knew that it couldn't be that important. His kid could sometimes be a bit over dramatic anyways. If it was a big deal Richard would have expressed it out loud to him by now…wouldn't he?

The father looked back at his son with some uncertainty in his eyes. Richard was already staring up at him steadily. Bruce was surprised to see a teen there, in the seat, instead of his little boy. Where had his kid gone? Since when did he suddenly change into this semi adult?

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Dick asked him with some hesitation in his voice.

Bruce was at lost for words for once in a lifetime. He then smiled warmly at his son and said, "I just saw something that I hadn't seen before."

"What was it?" Dick asked, confused. The teen then smiled slyly while saying, "If this is a lesson on discipline and obedience then I'll pass. But I would love to learn how to get out of this cord. That could be useful information."

Bruce frowned. His rare, friendly feeling was gone and replaced with his commanding, strict side that was his usual countenance in front of his son and at work. "You have five hours left in timeout," he said sternly down to Richard. Dick gave him a dirty glare but kept his mouth shut to prevent himself from getting extra time in the chair.

Bruce went back to his computer silently. At times he glanced down at his boy. The teen had accepted his fate by now and was taking this time to think deeply. There was that deep look in his eyes as he stared ahead silently and motionlessly. Bruce remembered when he could know exactly what the kid was thinking. But right now he was wondering what was going on in the teen's head.

So many things had changed.

A/N: Here you go! Sorry again for not updating in a long time. I'm not even expecting too many reviews for this chapter. I'm sure so many have forgotten about it already. Oh well, I like writing this fic, so I'll keep going with it even if people review or not. Happy New Year to all of you!


	8. Chapter 8 Surprise Battle

A/N: Sorry for the long wait for this chapter. I just didn't think anyone really wanted to see more until someone gave me a second review saying they would like to see another update soon. So I went right away to this one once again. Sorry again for taking forever to update this one. Please R&R. Thanks!

Disclaimer: I only own the Serial Killer and the kids. The rest of the characters belong to someone else.

Chapter 8 Surprise Battle

"What a day," Richard muttered to himself while walking down the long driveway to the front of Wayne Manor. He had dozed off in some classes and didn't even know he had a test that day. He knew for sure that he had failed it. Bruce wasn't going to be too happy with him when seeing that grade.

The young teen passed the open gate and walked into the big front yard of his house. He slowly walked up the steps to the front door and came in after a long sigh. Right away he knew something was wrong or different. One huge hint that warned him of this was that the house completely silent. Nowadays it was always stirring with some noise, but right now it was quiet.

Panic gripped the boy's heart as he dropped his backpack at the door and ran deeper into the house with his mind wild. He sprinted into the kitchen first and stopped when seeing Alfred there washing dishes. The old butler gave a small gasp while suddenly seeing Richard run into the room so quickly.

"Where are the others?" Dick asked Alfred almost snappishly.

"In the back yard with your father," Alfred answered calmly while returning his attention back to his chore.

"Oh," Richard said with a weak, embarrassed smile. Alfred looked at him oddly, but let the young boy be. Dick let out relieved sigh while walking out to where Bruce and the kids were. He opened the door to the backyard and right away didn't like the situation. Another surprise from his father.

"What's all this about?" Dick asked him, confused.

"Let's see how well you've taught these kids," Bruce said with a wink.

Richard chuckled partly from the randomness and partly from disbelief. "I just got back from school," Dick told him while turning around and heading back to the house. "Stop kidding around, Bruce. And you say I'm still acting like a kid!"

"So when you become leader of your own team you're going to tell the bad guy that you can't come kick his butt because you just got back from school?" Bruce asked him. "This isn't an option, Richard."

Richard frowned while stopping. He ran a hand through his hair with a sigh. He then yelled to his team, "Line up!"

The four kids raced to where Richard stood and lined up shoulder to shoulder in front of him. Bruce stood in the middle of the yard with his arms crossed in front of him and his eyes watching every move of his teen.

"If we lose today you guys won't fail," Dick told his team. "But I want to see your very best right now. Being able to lose doesn't give you any excuse if you do. And to tell you guys the truth, I don't think you have enough experience to beat Bruce right now. We still have a lot to learn."

"When you say we, you really mean us, right?" Lilly asked him like he was some stupid person.

"I teach you, you teach me," Richard said. "I've been learning a lot from you guys."

"Like what?" Amelia asked him, confused.

Richard smacked his forehead before muttering, "Right now is not the right time to ask personal questions." He then composed himself once again. "We don't have much time to talk right now, so listen up. Since I can't fight with you guys or move from my spot, I'm going to have to yell my orders to you. That means…?"

No one answered for him. He felt like a teacher that no one listens to. He decided to answer it by himself and see if they heard him later when it counted and it would be them getting punished for it rather than him.

"It means he will hear every move you are about to perform," Dick said with a sigh. "He'll know what will be coming and will be able to try to counter attack it. I thought we would have enough time till our first battle, so I was going to make up codenames for everything. For today just remember the few I give out, okay?"

They all shrugged as if they didn't care. Richard knew better than that, though. From their body language and expressions on their faces, he knew they were nervous and excited. There was still that wall between him and them, so that was why they weren't expressing anything to him at the moment. He so wished to break that barrier sometime soon. He hated being so detached from his team.

"Lilly and Alex work best with each other," Dick stated quickly. "When you guys team up to do that giant fire blast you've been working on, I'll yell Shadow Demon." Lilly smiled a little when he winked at her. He hadn't forgotten that was the nickname she wanted from the moment she stepped off that train into Gotham City.

"Amelia, you work fine alone," he told the little cheerleader in front of him. He gave her a wry smile before adding, "Feel free to use the garden hose when you need to." She nodded with a smile.

He then turned to Josh and said, "I want you to be invisible pretty much this whole fight. You're only job is to stay close to Bruce and give him a few good kicks whenever he talks or if I say his name. Did you get all that?"

"Yes," he answered with a nod. "What do I do if I get tiered and need a break?"

"Come to me if you feel that way," Richard answered quickly while seeing his father give him a hard look to hurry it up. "Don't let him see you at any time because if that happens, he's going to try to get ride of you once and for all."

Dick then turned to the rest of his team and let out a deep breath with a nervous smile crossing his lips. "Most of the time in this battle I'll be telling you what to do every second. Listen, learn, and obey. Don't get too badly hurt on your first battle. Now let's get out there and show him what we've learned!"

The group broke up and started to walk out to where Bruce was standing, perfectly relaxed. The battle started once Josh turned invisible. "Alex!" Dick shouted to the kid quickly, "Give him fireballs!"

Alex didn't waste anytime or hesitate as he suddenly started to throw small fireballs at Bruce. The man quickly ducked and jumped out of the way of some with a smug smile on his face. In the mean time, Robin told Amelia to attack with some water from the hose he had just turned on for her.

The girl had some trouble focusing on the liquid as she stuck her hands out at it. She slowly curled the water into a floating ball. She bit her lower lip in concentration while making another one and keeping the other suspended there. She made about six of them and then turned to Bruce with her full attention on her water. Robin hoped in a few months of full training, she would be able to do that in only a few seconds in stead of a few minutes.

"Let him have it, Amelia!" Richard yelled to her. "Lilly, you attack every time Bruce gets hit." The teen watched nervously as Amelia threw her water balls at the man as best as she could. Dick bit his lower lip while seeing that plan fail miserably. Amelia couldn't concentrate on too many balls at the same time and most of them fell to the ground before they even got to Bruce.

But Josh had listened to every word Richard had said and heard him say Bruce's name. His invisible self shrugged his shoulders while thinking he had really nothing to lose in this fight. He started to repeatedly kick Bruce in the shin as hard as he could.

"Hey!" Bruce cried in surprise while looking down to see nothing. "Ouch!" Josh only kicked him harder because now he was talking. He smiled when hearing Dick laugh at his father from far away. Josh then ran away right when Bruce made a blind swipe for him. Josh came to Richard's side and became visible again with a small giggle at his victory.

"Shadow Demon!" Dick yelled to both Lilly and Alex. The two kids glanced to him before getting in position for their move. In the mean time, Richard had Amelia fight Batman in hand to hand combat. Alex focused for a few seconds then threw his small ball of flame. Lilly, beside him, stuck her hand out at the ball and smiled wickedly while seeing it grow in size and fly towards Bruce.

Bruce noticed the fireball at the last possible second. He stopped messing with Amelia and did a complicated move that totally blew her away and made her fly into the air. She screamed while soaring airborne and let out a loud grunt when impacting the ground. She rolled a few times in the grass with a wince then just laid there to recoup from her painful defeat.

The Dark Knight quickly flung himself away from the giant ball of hot flames. The thing set the lawn on fire. With a quick wave of Alex's hand, the flames seemed to magically disappear. Bruce picked himself up and glanced to Richard with a smile on his lips. But he saw that his son was ignoring him completely and was tapping his chin with an index finger. It was his sign of deep thought.

"What do we do next?" Lilly yelled over to Dick, impatiently.

"We're done, here, kids," Bruce announced to them. "For now on you will have a battle with me every week. Now go do your homework." The kids all moaned while slowly walking back to the house sluggishly and complaining here and there.

Richard silently passed his father and walked up to Amelia, who was still laying in the grass in a daze. Bruce watched his son approach her then say a few things. Amelia responded with something that made both of them chuckle. He then held out a hand to help her up. She was then on her feet and they were walking back to the house together.

The boy was getting too attached to his team. Didn't he understand that this team wasn't going to be his after he was done? Bruce chuckled at himself when realizing that question was pretty stupid. Richard wasn't going to beat him, and if he did, Bruce would just say it was only a small joke and that he really couldn't have a team of his own after all. The good question was didn't the kid know his father was just pulling his leg.

Unknown to all the superheroes, someone was watching all of them closely with a smug smile on her lips as she got all the information she wanted for the day. Soon. It would be soon.

- A Few Days Later -

"Hey, Alfred, could you do something for me while I'm on patrol tonight?" Richard called out while coming down the stairs and into the living room. No one responded to his question. The kid jumped down the lat five steps and did a small flip in the air before landing perfectly on the wooden floor. There was an hour till patrol and he was a bit hyper that night. Maybe it was because of the ton of ice cream he had eaten with his team after supper. He had wanted to talk to them, and ice cream seemed like the only way to keep them in the same place for a full ten minutes.

"Al?" he called out while noticing the butler wasn't anywhere to be seen. He shrugged in confusion and then went out onto a search for the English man while calling out his name every so often. He was going to ask him to feed Fluffy, who lived in the font yard for the time being, while he was gone on patrol.

The teen wondered into the library with some frustration knitting into his eyebrows. Suddenly the door closed behind him loudly and he jumped in surprise. He spun around in a fighting stance only to see the man he had been searching the house for.

"Alfred, please don't scare me like that," Richard muttered while running a hand through his hair. He then noticed the frown on the butler's face and asked, "What's the matter?"

"This, Master Dick," Alfred said while holding up the paper in his hands. Richard knew exactly what is was and suddenly bolted for the door to block it from the butler so he couldn't get out. Alfred's frown deepened as he watched the boy latch himself to the door in a desperate attempt to keep the man inside the room. "So you do know your grade for this marking period?" he asked him sternly.

"Oh, please, Alfred," Dick pleaded. "Don't tell Bruce! You can't!"

"You got two A's, two B's, a C, and two D's, Master Dick," Alfred said to the boy. "This is inexcusable! And get away from the door. You look like a leech, the way you're latched onto it for some reason. I closed it in the first place because I thought, please forgive me, I thought you would steal the report card and take off with it."

Richard stared up at Alfred for a few seconds as his mind raced. He then stepped away from the door while muttering, "Sorry, Alfred." He gave the butler a wry smile while saying, "Nice idea, though." He made a small swipe for the paper jokingly, but Alfred had already predicted the kid to do it and pulled it back just in time.

"This isn't a joking mater, Master Dick," Alfred said sternly once again to the boy. "I didn't want to pick sides in this ridiculous fight between you and your father, but when seeing this I had no choice but to keep it from Master Bruce. I don't want you to lose your so called 'team' because of some grade."

"Then what do you want me to do?" Richard asked him. "If you show it to Bruce, I'm dead!"

"I want to see you get better grades than this," Alfred answered him while shoving the report card in his face. "I know you can do better than this, Master Dick. You're a brilliant boy! Why do you think you're getting such bad grades? You used to be a straight A student."

"You know the answer, Alfred," Dick said with his voice rising. "You know it's because I can't juggle a team, patrol, and school at the same time. I used to be able to have so much time to study for tests, but now I don't care about what two plus two is! I…I don't care what the goddess of the earth is! I finally have something I want and long to work at, but everything else in my life gets screwed up because of this and my mistakes and flaws are thrown into my face. Sometimes I don't even know what I want anymore!"

"Then give up the team, Master Dick!" Alfred said to him, flabbergasted at the teen's actions and thoughts. "All this confusion will end once you stop being so stupidly stubborn! I don't see why you keep hanging on."

"But I want this, Alfred!" Richard said up to him. Alfred was surprised to see so much passion and emotion on his face. "I _really_ want this! I can do it, I know I can! I want a team of my own. I think I would be so much more productive as a superhero if I went with this. Please, Alfred. Don't show it to Bruce."

Alfred saw it in the boy's eyes and in his voice that he was telling the truth and spilling out some of his heart to him. He was so much older than before. It almost blew the butler away to see how much the boy had grown.

"Fine, Master Dick," he said with a small smile. "I won't tell."

It was worth it to tell him this because it sent a giant smile to Richards face as he whispered in triumph, "Yes!" That smile never left him as thanked the butler a million times over. "And I'll try to improve my grades," he added before walking out the door. "Oh, and do you need me to do the dishes tonight or any kind of chore of the sort? I could do it for you."

Alfred smiled a little at the boy's actions while saying slyly, "Tomorrow night I'm making a big supper, you could clean the kitchen then when there are a lot of pots and pans." He was beginning to like taking Richard's side. It would maybe make his life easier.

The butler could tell that the boy knew he had gone too far with what he had said and knew he couldn't take it back. "Sure, Alfred," Dick said as kindly as he could. "And I'm guessing you would like me to feed Fluffy before I leave, right?"

_"I might as well go all the way,"_ Dick thought to himself with a sigh.

"Precisely, Master Dick," Alfred answered with another smile.

"_Great,"_ Dick thought while walking out of the room. _"Now I'm going to have to be a part time maid for my butler! That can now be added to my list of things to juggle. Can this get any worse? I really shouldn't have thought that."_

A/N: I know, short chapter. But my next one will be longer. And I'm going to have to start wrapping this fic up! The final chapters are coming up and those are really good ones! Once again, sorry for the long delay! Please give a review. Thanks!


	9. Chapter 9 The Real Killer

A/N: Wow! You readers are just so great! I got a whole bunch of feedback from you people even though I hadn't updated in forever! It made me so happy that I went right away to making another chapter for you guys. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything for this fic except for the killer and kids.

Chapter 9 The Real Killer

Richard gave a long sigh while shifting his weight to another foot. He stopped his work at the sink and looked over the tall stack of dishes next to him that were still dirty. Bruce had invited friends over, so they had extra plates and an elaborate dinner that Alfred took half a day to fix for everyone. Dick didn't eat much because he knew that his butler had left everything he had cooked with dirty just for him to wash.

"We need help," Lilly said to Richard from where his team was coming in.

"With one problem or for all of the many you have?" Dick asked her while submerging a few more plates into the water. The plates were from China and cost a lot, so Alfred had told him to wash them all by hand. This only made Dick's job worse.

"Homework, idiot," Lilly responded. The four kids all made their way to the bar stools across from the sink and presented their homework to him with different expressions on their faces.

"I'm busy," Dick said with a sigh.

"You're always busy," Amelia boldly pointed out. The kids all shook their heads to agree with her. Even Alex was in agreement with them. Usually he secluded himself from the others and didn't do much with them.

"Fine," Richard gave up quickly to make them happy, "After I'm done washing."

"Okay," Amelia said with a simple shrug. They all got comfortable on their stool and watched their leader continue washing the dishes silently. Dick didn't notice them at first, but after five minutes of them staring at him he was getting annoyed.

"You could help," he said sharply while giving them all a glare.

"Nope," Lilly said with a yawn. Josh shrugged in response. Alex hadn't heard him because of his headphones once again. Amelia shook her head no.

Richard glared daggers at them all while poring more soap in the sink. He snapped on the hot water with a disgusted grunt. His hard feelings quickly turned into ones of slight panic as he realized that he had put too much soap in the sink for it to handle. He bit his lower lip while wondering what to do to get all the bubbles out of the way. They just kept coming up!

Dick grabbed a handful of suds and blew it into Alex's face. The kid hadn't even realized that the sink was being over run by the bubbles and wasn't paying much attention to anything, so this new thing in his face freaked him out a bit. A loud yell of surprise escaped him as he flung backwards in his chair. This only knocked the stool off balance and sent the kid to the floor with a loud thud.

The kids erupted with laughter. Alex glared up at them as they giggled over his fall. Richard rounded the corner and helped Alex back to his feet with a small smile on his lips. He then took off Alex's headphones and set them on the counter with his homework.

"You guys are helping me," he told them all flatly. "You can dry, bubble boy," he added to Alex with a sly smile coming to his lips as Alex gave him a fierce glare. He didn't like that new nickname but the other kids found it a hoot and whopped with laughter.

"Amelia, you rinse," Dick gave them all directions. "Lilly, you can scrap the food off the plates and into the trash can. Josh, you put everything away." He then smiled wickedly to the team and they all frowned because they knew that meant that he was going to twist the situation somehow. "Let's time our work. If we get this done in fifteen minutes I'll do your homework with you. If not, you're on your own."

Richard started to mess with his watch to set it into stop watch mode. While he was looking down, the team suddenly went into action without a word. When Dick looked up to say go they were already going as fast as they could. "I guess this is really hard homework," he muttered to himself with a chuckle.

The teen spotted a CD/radio player next to the sink and couldn't help himself but turn it on to a station that was playing modern teen music instead of Alfred's boring classical junk. Richard smiled when hearing a new song start up. His team new it better than him and he could see them look over to the radio with smiles.

_Woohoohoo  
Woohoohoo_

_Debbie just hit the wall  
she never had it all…_

The kids besides Alex laughed as they saw Richard make an idiot out of himself by mouthing all the words perfectly, so it looked like it was him singing the funny song. But Dick knew he was getting to the fire producing kid because he was smiling a little.

_  
…One Prozac a day  
husbands a CPA  
her dreams went out the door  
when she turned twenty four  
only been with one man  
what happen to her plan?_

By the time the familiar chorus came along, everyone was mouthing the words and dancing around the kitchen while still cleaning dishes. Richard finally found himself cracking up when seeing Lilly use a plate as a guitar and intensely played it. "Break it down, Lilly!" he yelled over to her while turning up the music so that it blasted into every ear in the room.

The others all laughed when it looked like Lilly was going to smash the plate and Dick freaked out. She pointed at him while laughing. Then the second verse came up with all of them mouthing the words to each other with giggles coming up every so often.

_She's seen all the classics  
she knows every line  
Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink  
even Saint Elmo's Fire  
she rocked out to wham  
not a big Limp Bizkit fan  
thought she'd get a hand  
on a member of Duran Duran._

When the chorus came back up again they all had air guitars. They looked like complete idiots rocking out to some head banging song "Bowling for Soup" had produced for people who lived in 1985. All the kids didn't even know what the lyrics meant, but the beat was hypnotic and catchy. But if they all were looking like drunks, who cared?

Dick couldn't find anytime he was more happier with his team. He could feel that wall being totally broken down as he rocked out with them and being a goof ball along with them on their level. With this act he felt like one of them for once. He wasn't the enemy or the evil leader anymore. He was a kid just like them and it felt so good.

"Um…Master Dick," a voice suddenly came up above the booming music.

All laughter and dancing stopped on a dime as the whole team looked up with wide eyes at Alfred as the loud music faded into background noise. The butler was glaring daggers at them with a thin frown on his lips. The man's arms were folded in front of him as his foot tapped on the ground. They had no idea how long he had been watching them, but right now they knew he wasn't too happy with them.

Richard quickly turned off the radio after they all got over their shock. All the kids became serious and rushed back to their chore silently. Richard cleared his throat before coming over to the butler. "Yes?" he asked quietly.

"A Susan Miller just called to see if you and the kids would come to the park tomorrow afternoon for some ice cream," Alfred said with confusion in his voice. "Isn't see a reporter? Why would she be interested with you, Master Dick? Or is it you who is interested becuase she mostly reports about that serial killer?"

"Susan Miller?" Richard asked while tapping his chin. He then remembered the reporter in the park who he had bumped into a few times. She was the lady that always bought his team ice cream when they were there. "She's cool, Alfred," he said with a smile. "Can you call her back and tell her that we will be there?"

Alfred eyed him for a few seconds before saying with a nod, "Yes, Master Dick." He then added sharply, "And no more playing the music so loud. I should band rock music from you, but that is your father's job. Continue with the washing." And then he left while shaking his head.

Richard smiled at his team while turning around. "Susan is buying us ice cream tomorrow, guys," he said while going back to washing. "So let's get all our homework done once we get home, 'kay?" They all cheered in response.

-Bruce-

Bruce gave a sigh while sitting down on his leather seat next to the Bat Cave's computer. He was done with work early and wanted to get back down to searching for this Serial Killer going around Gotham City. He cracked his knuckles before typing a few things. But there was one thing he wanted to look into before searching for the killer. He had forgotten to do so for a long time, but now he finally remembered.

He brought up all the bowling allies in Gotham and searched a few of them to see which one was the one him and Robin had gone into after the thief at the jewelry store a week or so ago. He found the right one and used his computer hacking skills to bring up the video tapping of the place. In a half an hour he had the whole tapping of when he had been knocked out by the bowling ball.

The man leaned back in his seat while seeing everything happen in night vision. He saw Robin and thief there lit up in bright green. Robin dodged a ball very deftly and Bruce smiled at the skill of his son that night. There was a few words exchanged then the thief unexpectedly threw her bag of jewels on the floor between both of them as if giving Robin a challenge. Then things got interesting.

Bruce leaned forward to look at his computer screen more closely while Alfred came down the stairs with a soft drink in his hand for the man. Bruce ignored his butler while seeing the thief pin Robin at one time and some more words were exchanged. Something she said clearly made Robin freak out. But Bruce couldn't hear anything and could only watch as the situation got worse for his poor son.

Alfred opened his mouth but saw that Bruce was thoroughly into what he was watching. Alfred gave a small sigh while deciding to watch whatever had gotten the man's full attention. He frowned deeply while seeing Robin pinned down on a bowling alley with a lady on top of him. He gave a small gasp as she pulled out a knife and pressed it against Robin's neck. He couldn't take it very far.

"When was this, Master Bruce?" he asked the man while pointing to the paused screen.

"Around two weeks ago," Bruce answered grimly.

"And where were you?" Alfred asked him.

"Knocked out," Bruce said quietly. Confusion swept over his face as he asked himself, "Why didn't he tell me about this? He was almost killed and he didn't tell me a thing! And that lady is more than just a common jewelry thief."

"Well, I think this video here clearly showed us that she is insane," Alfred said, frustrated. "But right now that's not the problem. I can't believe Master Dick never told you about this?"

"Just like a serial killer," Bruce thought out loud. He quickly rewind the video to the part the thief first had Robin pinned and had said something that scared him. Robin had said something and Bruce read his lips a few times to finally get it. "She was the serial killer!" he suddenly said loudly with eyes going wide.

"You have to be joking, Master Bruce," Alfred said in disbelief. "She only targets young male…teens," he said slowly while realizing that what Bruce had said was totally true.

"And doesn't this masked girl in this video look like someone I've seen?" Bruce asked himself. He cut a picture out of the video and typed in a few things and got the last report of someone being killed by the serial killer. It was a news paper article with the reporter's picture in it. Bruce cut that picture out and compared both pictures with a frown on his face. It was a perfect match. "Susan Miller," Bruce said.

Alfred dropped the drink in his hand in surprise and fright. Bruce looked at him with wide eyes while waiting for the butler to spit it all out. Alfred finally was able to speak and managed to say, "Richard went to the park an hour ago to see her because she was going to buy them ice cream!"

"No," Bruce whispered as fear gripped his heart. "I'm going after him!" he said over his shoulder as he bolted for the Bat Mobile. "She is not going to get my son," he said to himself while booting up his car. "Hold on, Richard."

-Richard-

"Hey, thanks," Dick said to Susan while sitting next to the young reporter on a bench.

"No problem," Susan said with a sweet smile. They both fell silent while watching the kids finish up with their ice cream quickly so they could play a game of soccer. They downed their treat in only two minutes while laughing at each other as they got brain freezes every so often. Even Richard laughed at them.

"So any more news on this Serial Killer you report so much about?" Richard decided to ask the lady.

"Why do you ask?" Susan said with a smile after eating some of her own ice cream. Concern was on her face as she said, "She does target ones your age. Do you ever fear that you will be next?"

This hit a sore spot in the young teen as he thought over what to say while eating his ice cream. "Not really," he lied with a shrug. "I'm at school all day then do homework or go to the park afterwards. I'm pretty safe all the time, so I don't worry. Thanks for caring, though."

"You're such a sweet boy, Richard," Susan said as if she was his mother, which always made Dick extremely uncomfortable. She stared at him while he shifted in his seat and finishing his ice cream quickly. He knew she was watching him but he couldn't figure out why. _Maybe she's just daydreaming and not realizing she is staring at me,_ he reasoned with himself.

"Hey, I'm going to join them," Richard finally said just to get away from her stare. "You want to play?"

Susan laughed at this and said, "No thanks. You go play with them. I'll watch." Richard nodded while running out to the field his team was kicking a ball around randomly. His leadership skills were quickly put into use as heformed teams and rules. He could still feel the stare of Susan as he taught the kids better ways to kick and control the ball before starting up a game.

As if too quickly, the team got tiered and started to walk back to the bench Susan was still sitting at. The sun was setting and almost no one was in the park now. Once the sun disappeared there was only darkness and violence in the city. No one in their right mind would want to stick around once that happened. Only Batman and Robin would come out in the night.

"Man, I'm beat," Dick said while sitting on the bench with a sigh. The others collapsed onto the ground beside him. Josh seemed to be knocked out cold as he curled up into a ball and fell right to sleep. Only when seeing this was when Richard became somewhat alarmed. Lilly followed suit of the first kid and the others fell asleep just like the others rather quickly. Now Dick knew something was wrong.

"What's going on?" he said slowly while feeling extremely sleepy. He tried to fight off whatever chemical was battling in his body. He looked over to Susan with his vision getting blurry. She was smiling at him once again. Fear struck the helpless teen as he remembered that smile. It was the one of the serial killer's.

"I always keep a promise, bird boy," Susan said evilly. "Did you really think that I had forgotten about you?" Dick tried to shout a protest or at least something, but nothing came out of his mouth as his vision went black and he fell into a dark void of nothingness.

-Batman-

It was dark by the time he was able to get to the park. The Batman skidded his car to a stop by the sidewalk that led into the small park. Skillfully, the man jumped out of the car in a rush and landed on the sidewalk in a crouch. He didn't waste time and sprinted into the dark recreational area.

He raced through the different pathways in search for anyone. He knew that he was just way too late. Everyone was gone. Despair over took him as he ran through the place one more time. His heart stopped as he suddenly saw a dark figure lying on a bench next to a soccer field all alone.

"No," Batman whispered as he ran to the figure with emotions swimming around in his head. Relief swept through him as he saw his son lying on the bench with no scares or cuts on him. He checked his pulse and found out that his son was fine and was only unconscious for the time being. He picked up Richard and quickly got him to the Bat Mobile. He carefully put his son in the front seat and drove off to the Bat Cave. Boy, he would be made when he woke up.

-Richard-

He woke up with a start. His eyes flew open and a small gasp escaped his lips as memories flew into his head. He expected to wake up in the hands of a psychopath just to suffer to his death. But he woke up in the Bat Cave on the cold medical table.

The teen had managed to scare Alfred who had been looking over him at the time he had woken up. The butler gasped while backing up to give the boy some space. The kid sat up in panic. He looked around the room in silence in search for something unknown to the butler.

"What is the mater, Master Dick?" Alfred asked him, confused by the kid's actions.

"Where is my team?" Richard asked him.

Alfred lowered his head as he fell silent. Richard stared at him as things sunk in. Susan must have taken the kids instead of him! _But why them?_ Dick thought to himself. _I thought she wanted me._

"You're staying here," Batman's voice suddenly said from behind Alfred where he was at the computer. "I know what you're thinking, Richard, and I'm forbidding you to go anywhere."

"You can't!" Richard exploded in anger while jumping off the table and coming over to Batman.

"Yes, I can!" Batman said sternly. "You knew this would happen, Richard. You knew that thief back at the bowling alley was the serial killer and she was after you, but because of your stupid, selfish pride you didn't tell me about it. Now those kids are out there because of you. The killer could be waiting for you, so you're not leaving this house till I find her."

"But those kids are my team," Dick said with his eyes narrowed as he looked up at his father. "I can't just do nothing! I'm going with you!" He stormed off toward the Bat Mobile but didn't make it far. Batman caught his wrist from behind and quickly caught the other. Dick struggled while yelling his frustration as his father hand cuffed him and drug him to a chair next to the computer.

"I'm sorry I have to do this to you, Dick, but it's for your own good," Batman said while tying the kid up to the chair with a sigh.

"Then let me go if you feel so sorry," Dick spat out while still struggling fruitlessly in his binds. "You can't do this to me! Can't you just trust me to take care of myself?"

"No!" Batman yelled into his son's face. Richard stopped short as he looked to the floor. "I can't trust you, Richard," Batman said with a hint of anger in his voice. "You've been lying to me for a long time now about your health and other things, and right now I'm being the good parent and keeping my kid safe for once."

"News flash, Bruce," Richard yelled back. "I wouldn't have lied to you if you would have been more open and understanding! I know that you've been playing me for a long time now with my team, but you never saw that I really wanted it. You thought I was just being stubborn, but I wasn't! I lied so you wouldn't get rid of my team. It was for my team! You don't and never will understand that, Bruce, because it is _you_ who is stubborn! Deal with it!"

"You just got yourself in a whole lot of trouble, young man," Batman said through clenched teeth.

"For shoving your flaws in your face?" Dick asked with an angry smirk. "You do that to me all the time."

"If you don't stop talking this way you're going to be grounded for months," Batman said dangerously. "I'm going to search for the kids now and Alfred is going to look after you. If I find you gone by the time I get back, I swear you're going to get it."

Richard only responded with a death glare. He watched as his father walked over to the Bat Mobile and speed off into the city. Once everything was quite again Richard muttered, "Jerk! I can't believe he left me here!"

"It wasn't necessary for you to say all those things, Master Dick," Alfred finally said while slowly walking up to the boy. Richard didn't answer as he looked to the floor with his eyes still narrowed. Alfred put a hand on his shoulder and Dick resisted the urge to shove it off. The kid wasn't stupid. He was going to play every card in his hand till he was all out.

"He doesn't understand me, Alfred," Richard said with a weak sigh. He looked to the ground with the saddest look on his face as he waited for the butler to do what he predicted. _I can't believe Bruce left me with Alfred,_ he thought. _It's like he wanted me to search for my team. I just hope the poor butler takes the bait._

Alfred gave a long sigh before asking, "Can I make it up to you by getting you something to drink, Master Dick?"

_Hook, line, and sinker!_

"I guess," he answered quietly. "Thanks, Alfred." He gave him a false smile before the man went up the stairs to fix him something to drink. Then the real smile hit the teen's lips as he flew into action. _I have an estimate of five minutes to get out of here!_ He thought while setting his eyes on one of his bird-a-rangs.

"Bingo."

A/N: Two more chapters and this fic will be done. Wow! I might miss writing this one. It was pretty fun to experiment around with it and make it fun. But I hope you guys have been as entertained with this fic as I have. Please give a review! Thanks!


	10. Chapter 10 A Team

A/N: This is like the final showdown! I'm going to make it extra long for you readers! Sorry it took me a while to get it out. I just wanted it to be perfect. I'm pleased with what it turned out to be. I hope you guys feel the same about it. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Don't own!

Chapter 10 A Team

"This sucks!" Richard muttered while rocking back into his chair for the fifth time in the two minutes he had been trying to escape. He looked up at the clock while letting out a frustrated breath that he had held onto for a few seconds.

The kid had his hands behind the back of the chair and had to lean forward and onto his lose feet to move around the basement. The act of doing so was a lot tougher and complicated than what he thought it would be. But he knew he had to push through this small struggle if he wanted to get out before Alfred showed up once again.

With determination flashing into the boy's eyes, he rocked his chair so that he was now carrying it on his back. He grunted while moving as quickly as possible over to a table where one of his bird-a-rangs were out.

He was there in only a few second this time. He grabbed his gadget and swiftly cut all the ropes holding his body to the chair. _Now for the handcuffs,_ he thought while jumping out of the chair and looking around the place.

After stumbling around the Bat cave, Richard found the hiding spot of the keys and he was free seconds later. The teen then sprinted around the basement while grabbing random things he thought he would need soon. In the estimated time of five minutes, the young teen was writing his butler a note and running off deeper into the cave to one of his escape routes.

While running into the dark woods behind his house, Richard changed into Robin. The metal bottom boots took a while to get pulled on, but the rest of the colorful costume was easy to pull on. The finishing touch was his mask that fit right over his bright, sparkling eyes. His cocky attitude dimmed away as the more serious side of him dropped over him.

The teen superhero paused as he landed on the roof of a building. He realized he had jumped into this thing with little thought of a plan. He bit his lower lip as he hesitated about what to do next. Batman was somewhere out in the city, so he had to avoid the Dark Knight at all costs. He never once regretted his decision or had a thought of going back, though.

His mind was set on finding his team and saving them, whatever the cost. He was still trying to get the thought of the serial killer out of his head, though. He could only hope that the kids were still alive even though they were in the hands of the psychopath.

Robin thought over where to start looking for them as he paced the roof. Batman would start by the docks and old warehouses close to there in search for the kids. But he knew that Susan was smarter than that. She would be in a place Batman wouldn't think about searching for at first.

"The bowling alley!" Robin thought out loud to himself as that inner light bulb had suddenly turned on inside his brain. Not even a second after he had the thought, the boy had taken off at top speed to the exact location.

-Alfred-

"I got you a soda, Master Dick," Alfred called down into the basement while slowly coming down the stairs. When no one answered the poor man, Alfred became alarmed. He flew down the stairs now and set the soda on a counter while running over to where a chair was sitting next to another counter. Rope, a set of handcuffs, and a bird-a-rang sat on the table with a small note next to the pile of things.

Alfred gave a small sigh because he knew the kid was long gone by now. He felt kind of used, but at least the boy was decent enough to write him a note before leaving. The butler picked up the note and read it. It was just like he suspected. He knew he shouldn't have left the basement. Bruce wouldn't be happy with him if the boy got himself into trouble.

The butler walked over to the computer and typed in a few things to bring up the Batman's picture as he drove in his car. By the look the Dark Knight gave the butler, the man already knew what happened. "He's gone, isn't he, Alfred?" he asked, annoyed and ticked off.

"Your guess is correct," Alfred said with another sigh. "I went to get him a drink and he left."

"How long were you gone?" Batman asked him.

"Five minutes!" Alfred defended himself.

"Jeez, that kid is fast!" Batman said with a sigh. "He's dead once I get my hands on him. I'm going to finish up looking at these warehouses before heading after him. He's most likely moving this way, anyways. Villains usually live around these places."

"Sorry, Master Bruce," Alfred said while hanging his head. "Please find him before the killer does."

"I will," Bruce said. Right before turning the connection between them, the man muttered, "Stupid boy!"

-Susan-

The kid was taking the bait just like she thought he would. She didn't like just taking her victims to her hideout against their will. She liked to use some kind of skill to make them come to her. In her mind that was her excuse for killing them. They came to her, so they wanted to die. Right now Robin wanted to die. It would be alright to kill the boy.

Susan Miller smiled slyly at the four kids tied up together in a corner of the dark basement of the bowling alley. She had sedated all of them except for Lilly, who would be the main bait. But in the pitch-black room, she hadn't seen Susan at all. She would randomly call out for help. The killer knew that girl was the only one with no powers strong enough to foil her over all plan for the Boy Wonder.

"Someone, help us, dang it!" Lilly screamed out in frustration. She was a strong one that hadn't given up for a while now. She didn't mind the blackness that had been surrounding her for the past half an hour. But this time her yelling had a response.

"Lilly!" Robin's muffled voice sounded from the other side of the wooden door that led into the big storage room to the building where Lilly and the rest were being held.

"Robin!" Lilly yelled with joy flooding into her voice. "We're in here!"

From where Susan was hiding, she saw Robin bust down the door and run into the room while shinning his flashlight around before coming in deeper. He rounded a rack of supplies and spotted the girl and the rest of his team on the floor and ran up to them.

"Where is she, Lilly?" Robin asked the girl as he kneeled down to untie her quickly.

"Who?" Lilly asked him, now looking scared for once.

"Susan!" Robin yelled at her from his anxiety and frustration over the situation.

"I haven't seen anybody in forever, stupid," Lilly said while giving the teen an odd look. She then gasped while seeing Susan rush up to both of them from somewhere in the darkness.

"Good night, bird boy!" Susan said while laughing as she flung the old shovel over her head and brought it down over Robin's head before he could turn around to face her. The poor kid gave a small wince before blacking out and hitting the cement ground with a little thud. Lilly was now screaming as she watched Susan smiling over Robin's fallen body which was bleeding from his brutal wound inflicted to his head.

Susan then looked over to Lilly with that same wicked smile on her lips as she said sweetly, "Quiet, young one because you will lose your voice. We don't want that, now do we?"

Lilly stopped screaming as she watched petrified as the lady who used to be kind and buy them ice cream drug Robin's body somewhere deeper into the darkness. The girl shivered uncontrollably as fear overtook her body. She just couldn't get that evil smile out of her mind as she stared into the blackness consuming her.

-Robin-

His world spun in and out of focus as he slowly floated to consciousness. The first thing his brain was able to compute was that his head had done some damage lately as it pounded in extreme pain that made the boy wince and moan. Very quickly after this, he realized that he was once again tied to a chair in a cold, musty room. He fought for clear vision in the dim room as a feeling of dread was placed onto his heart.

"How are you, my little bird?" someone's voice came to the boy's ears. At the sound of the lady's voice, Robin remembered what had happened and his body tensed. His vision became normal as he searched for the owner of the voice in the room.

A cold shiver went down the boy's spine as he took in his surroundings. He guessed he was still in the basement of the bowling alley and in its supply room. Tall shelves lined the walls and the whole room was like a maze, very similar to a library. The stock was random with things from toilet paper to extra bowling shoes. A few small naked light bulbs hung from the ceiling and gave the place a dim glow that creeped the superhero out. Robin was placed all the way on the other side of the room that was the farthest away from the door, the kid noticed.

"I'm so glad you decided to come, Robin," Susan said coyly as she stepped out from the shadows of a corner. Robin's breathing became shallower as he saw her. He thought he could have somehow out smart her. He thought he could get his team back and save them. He thought he would live to see another day. He was now beginning to realize all those thoughts were rash and foolish. He had only been her puppet and fell straight into her set trap. He would now pay the price. It could be his life.

"Where are the kids, Susan?" Robin asked her. He tried to keep his voice steady, but he was having a difficult time doing so. She didn't answer him as she slowly slid toward him with an evil twinkle in her eyes that bore right into him. "Where is my team?" he repeated with some sternness this time in his voice.

"You're just trying to be all superhero, Robin," Susan said while stopping a yard or two away from him. She suddenly produced a long, sharp kitchen knife from behind her and looked at it with that gleam still in her eyes. She then looked back to him and said, "You don't have to care about them anymore. Don't you ever care about your own life?"

"I want to know where they are, Susan," Robin said. Even though his head was pounding, his brain had been kicked into overdrive and was thinking on how to get out his situation. Sooner than later, Batman would come to help him. He had to hang in there till then. Talking was the best way to stall time as he worked on the pathetic knots the lady had tied. But he had to keep the poker face for now.

Susan suddenly lunged forward with the tip of the knife aimed for the boy's chest. Robin shut his eyes and waited for the impact, but none came. He opened them to be staring into the killer's eyes. He tried to back up, but couldn't go far because he was stuck to the chair for the time being.

"I know that you're scared, Robin," Susan said with some sympathy in her voice. "But screaming always makes you feel better." Robin felt the tip of the cool blade against his stomach and it made his gut twist. He had to stay strong through, so he didn't allow himself to show any fear as he glared up at the killer as if angry.

"You've always been a serious one," she said while casually lifting the blade higher till it rested at the boy's throat. She saw that she wasn't getting through to him and frowned. As quick as a striking snake, the lady slashed Robin's right arm from the shoulder to half way down the elbow. She smiled as a loud yell of pain sounded into the air.

Robin winced through the pain now in his arm as he felt the trickle of blood go down. "Why are you doing this?" he finally asked her as pain and confusion racked his body.

Susan actually looked somewhat hurt from his question as she backed away a few steps. "I thought you wanted this," she said sadly. "You came willingly."

Robin looked at her with confusion and said, "I came for my team! I only came for them!"

"But you knew that you could get caught!" Susan jumped in to prove she was right. "You knew this would happen if you went to go save those brats. But you still came out, so that means you came willingly. Don't you see? It's so clear."

Robin made himself replace his fear and confusion with anger, which was a much stronger emotion than the others. He narrowed his eyes while yelling back at her, "But I didn't _want_ to get chopped into a million pieces by a friend of mine!"

"Oh, but coming freely means you do want it, Robin, you're just a bit confused at the moment because of that little bump on your head," she said with a small laugh. "You can be so cute when you're angry. Now calm down. I can make it all better pretty soon."

"_Little_ bump?" Robin asked her. "To me it seemed like you intended to knock my brains out! And lady, I defiantly DON'T want to get killed! You are one messed up fruit loop if you still think of it that way."

"Don't you raise your voice to me, young man," Susan said with a frown.

"You're not my mother," Robin said coldly. "So stop acting like you are, lady." He was done calling her Susan. She wasn't going to be talked out of killing him, so keeping her as a friend in his head would only make his job harder.

What Robin said made the killer angry as she lunged at him again. This time Robin was all too ready. He had untied his hands and was able to fling himself to the side to avoid getting a knife lodged in his stomach. He rolled to his feet and took off down a hallway of shelves, on his way to the door.

The sound of a knife flying by his head whizzed into the boy's ears as he stopped short. He looked to a shelf at his side and saw a knife sticking out of it. This caught all his attention, so the attack of the killer made him give a short yell of surprise. His back hit the rusty shelf and his head slammed into the box with the knife in it. The world spun for a second, but the boy ignored the impairment as he brought his feet up and kicked Susan in the chest as she tried to pin him there.

The whole self came tumbling down from the momentum and Robin felt his shoulder's go free from the grip the killer had on them. He went down with the shelf as well and swore profusely in his head over and over again when he felt his ankle being crushed under the side of the thing.

He quickly pushed boxes off him with a wince. He used the adrenaline pumping in his body now to act like Superman and lift the whole shelf off his ankle to get free. He then stood up and searched for the killer. But she was no where to be seen. Robin knew that wasn't a good thing.

"Oh, Robin!" a sing song voice echoed out into the room from a few shelves over. "I have something for you, my little bird. Come and see!"

Then he heard a scream of fear from the same place and his blood ran cold. The superhero ignored the pain in his ankle as he jumped over the fallen boxes to where he had heard the scream. He rounded the last shelf and stopped dead in his tracks. Susan knew she wouldn't get what she wanted from the teen the way she had been doing it before. But now she had his real weakness in her hands.

"Robin!" Amelia screamed as she spotted him. She was kneeling down on the ground tied up with Susan right behind her with another knife in her hands. The others were behind her on the floor and tied up with wide eyes of fear. Even Alex looked scared out of his wits.

"Don't hurt her!" Robin yelled while running toward the lady. He stopped as Susan placed the blade by Amelia's throat and smiled wickedly when seeing the Boy Wonder stop. She knew she had so much power over him now.

Susan let out a giggle as she saw the power she was producing. She loved the power! She _lived_ for the power! "I haven't had a good chase like that since my first kill," she told Robin. The boy knew a gruesome and sick minded story was about to be told and the kids were going to be freaked out from hearing it, but it would stall a whole bunch of time. That was the only reason why Robin let her continue talking.

The weakened sidekick stayed in a fighting stance as Susan told her story. "He was such a good boy when he was little," she said with her eyes clouding over as if remembering it from such a long time ago even though it had been just been a half a year. "But once he turned into a teen, he wanted to stay with his friends more than his mother. I couldn't take it! So one Saturday before he went out with his friends I locked the doors and didn't let him leave. Well, he got mad at me and said I was being this way because of my disease. He said I was insane! But I'm not insane! To make him shut up I _had_ to kill him. The power to do so was so exciting that I had to do it again! And I found out that I could, so I did."

"But why me, lady?" Robin asked her while hiding a smirk in his anger. He had formed a plan and was buying all the time he could now.

"I found you by accident, really," the killer said with a laugh at the thought. "I have been looking for someone who looked like my son, and the only person I could think of was Robin, the Boy Wonder. But when I saw you as Richard, I was blown away on how you looked like my son and Robin. So I tested you as a common thief. The only hint I could get that night was that you both had colds. Then when I watched you battle your father with this little team of yours that one afternoon, I knew you both were one and the same."

"Interesting," Robin said slyly. "So I guess you know this move." Susan gave him a confused look before he shouted, "Shadow Demon!" Alex closed his eyes to focus on his fire energy. He burned away his ropes quickly and then threw a small flame at the killer. Lilly pulled herself together while hearing the command. She kept her eyes on the small spark and it quickly grew into monster size.

Susan turned around and fear washed over her face when seeing the fireball. She dropped her knife and threw herself to the side while Amelia rolled the other direction. The fireball exploded on the impact on the ground and the fire producing kid quickly put it out. He then burned the ropes binding his friends. Robin ran over to them with relief on his face.

"Go find Batman!" Robin told them. "I'll take care of her!"

The kids looked up at him like he was an idiot and it was actually Alex to spoke up for them. "No!" said boldly. "You risked your life for us, why can't we return the favor? We're not going anywhere. You're going to have to deal with us for a long time." The others all agreed with him.

Robin had a surprised look on his face at first. He then smiled slyly and the others smiled as well. "Fine," he said. "But you guys have to do 100 pushups in training tomorrow for disobeying me like this. Now let's go kick some bad guy butt!"

They all cheered while running past him toward Susan, who was searching for knife with a dazed look on her face. She looked up when hearing the cheering and backed up when seeing the kids advance towards her. Robin smiled wickedly at her before throwing himself into the battle.

The confidence won the fight and also the numbers. Josh did exactly what he did in the battle between them and Batman. Amelia wasn't able to use any of her water bending skills, but she made up for it with her cheerleading jumps and flips. Lilly and Alex were relentless with their fire attacks while Robin made some pretty powerful kicks and punches till they finally brought the girl down to the ground.

"You're killing days are over, lady," Robin said down to Susan as his team surrounded her on the floor. "You messed with the wrong team. You hurt one of us, we all fight back!"

-Batman-

"He turned on his tracking device only five minutes ago," Alfred's voice from the communicator told Batman as the superhero forced his way into the Bowling Alley. "Why didn't you go search for him an hour ago?"

"I thought he would head for the docks and warehouses there," Batman responded. "But I'm at the Bowling Alley now, Alfred." He then put his communicator away and ran to the door that led down into the basement. He flung the door open and raced down the stairs two at a time. He had to run down a hallway to the right closet where the signal was coming from.

The door was already open. He rushed into the room and stopped in his tracks with shock. There his son was, sitting on the concrete floor with Amelia trying her hardest to dress a long cut on his arm. Alex was leaning against a shelf and playing with a fireball with a bored expression on his face. Lilly and Josh had the same expression as they stared at the tied up and gagged serial killer next to Robin and glaring daggers at him.

"You made it!" Robin said while looking up to his father. He winced as Amelia finished with wrapping a cloth around the wound and tightened it with a smug smile on her lips.

"Finally!" Lilly said when seeing the Dark Knight. "It took you forever!"

Robin started to stand up and his team quickly yelled at him while rushing to his side to support him. He gave a small chuckle while saying, "You guys I'm fine. I've hurt my ankle millions of times. I know by now how to walk with it being sprained." He looked up to Batman and said smugly, "You were looking in the wrong places, so I decided to take the killer down with my team. I think we did a pretty good job, but I hurt my ankle and they said I should get a ride back to the house."

Batman looked back from his son to the kids and then to the tied up killer on the floor with complete surprise on his masked face. He then composed himself and said with a small hint of a proud smile, "Good work."

A/N: The ending is the next chapter! And anyone who reviews this chapter I'm going to ask you about a new fic I want to start. I would like to know what the public likes before I start that one up! But thanks for reading and please finish it with a review! Thanks! You readers are awesome!


	11. Chapter 11 Sad Goodbye

A/N: Last chapter! It might be a bit boring, but I thought it was a nice calm way to sum up the fic. I hope you readers like it! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Don't own any DC characters!

Chapter 11 Sad Goodbye

Robin stood motionlessly on the train platform in the poring rain. His team stood around him with umbrellas and depressed looks on their faces. Batman watched his son closely with his face emotionless as ever. Robin was having a hard time doing this.

For the fifth time that evening, Robin ran a gloved hand through his wet laden hair while letting out a long sigh. Only a week after the taking down of Susan Miller the kids had to leave. Bruce had to sit Richard down and tell him that he didn't plan Robin to do so well so they were scheduled to leave soon. Now the boy was standing with them at the train station and waiting with them till it came.

Susan Miller had committed suicide two days after her capture. The secrete identity of the boy she tried to kill would never be told to another person now, so the anxiety in the house had died down because of that known fact. But the nervousness had quickly been replaced with depression and gloominess. Soon the house would be back to its normal self.

"There it is!" Amelia cried when spotting the train in the distance. She then fell silent when realizing that this would be the end for her team. Things would be so different now.

"When will we see you again, Robin?" Josh asked his leader while craning his neck to look up at the teen.

Robin gave them all a weak smile while bending down to their eye level. "Don't know, Josh," he answered the kid truthfully. "But it would be nice if we all kept in touch." He tried to smile at them, but he stopped when seeing them all look to the wet ground with sadness in their eyes.

"Hey, why the long faces?" he asked them while coming closer to them.

"I don't know," Lilly answered him with a sigh. "I didn't have fun at all and I hated you and these guys for most of the time here in this smelly city, but…I…I guess I'll miss everything. You know?"

"Dido," Alex muttered quietly.

Robin opened his mouth to say something, but then Lilly cut him off. "You knew that your dad wouldn't let you keep us or let you be a leader, Robin," she said sharply. "Why did you keep pushing it? It was stupid!"

"Yeah," Josh spoke up for his friend suddenly. The other two nodded while frowning deeply at their old leader. Robin looked to the ground to search for the right words. They all waited silently for him to answer. The train came to a screeching stop behind him and people piled in to get out of the rain. But the kids still waited for their answer.

"I guess," Robin answered quietly. His voice was barely above the raindrops splattering around their feet. "I guess I just really wanted to be the leader of something. That wasn't my main goal at first. It was more to prove my father wrong. But it kept going because I saw suddenly that I was a good leader and seeing my team progress like it did made me have this kind of feeling. I sound pretty stupid right now, don't I?" he asked them with a small chuckle.

"Well, yeah, you do sound like the idiot you are," Lilly answered with a nod. The others glared at her until she smiled and said, "But you're _our_ idiot leader and we don't care what you sound like." They all laughed then gave each other a group-hug of good bye.

They all then started to pile onto the train while waving to their leader the whole time. Josh tried to hide his sensitive tears even though everyone knew he was crying. It only made Robin smile. "Don't kill each other!" he called after them. He then let out a sad laugh.

Suddenly Alex ran back out of train. "I don't want to leave!" he cried while wrapping his arms around Robin's waist and sobbed into his stomach. Robin was in complete shock at first. Alex didn't ever show emotions as strong of these unless it was anger. But right now he needed Robin more than ever.

"Alex, it will be okay," Robin said while bending down again and holding onto the boy's shoulders.

"No, it won't!" Alex said with a small sniff. "I won't fit in Public School. I'm too different! They hate me and so does my parents! Please don't make me go back there. I don't want to go."

"I…I don't want you to, either," Robin stumbled on his words. Boy, he loved these kids too much. This was just so hard to say to this boy in particular. "I wish you could stay, but I have orders. I…I'm sorry." They both then hugged each other as Robin said to him, "Keep in touch with me, okay? You'll be okay. Trust me. Now, go."

Alex nodded while slowly walking back to the train. Robin bit his lower lip as he was flooded with emotions. But he stayed strong as he stood back up and watched the train start to leave. He suddenly felt a hand touch his shoulder. He looked up to see Batman there next to him.

"I'm sorry, Richard," he whispered down to his son while squeezing his shoulder.

-Years Later-

"Nice work, guys!" Robin said to his team. The Teen Titans all collapsed onto their leather couch in the living room of Titans Tower. The leader gulped down his water while hearing his team talk to each other about the battle they just won with the H.I.V.E. Five.

"Hey, y'all!" Cyborg yelled to them suddenly from where he was at the kitchen counter. "The mail came in while we were gone!"

Robin sat down with a sigh as Cyborg named off some fan mail, bills, and other junk mail. Usually they didn't get stuff that was special, but today was a bit different for one of them. The leader leaned back in his chair while closing his eyes. There was too much to think about, mail wasn't important to him.

"From an Alex Martin," Cyborg said as if it was fan mail. Robin suddenly flung himself out of his seat and snatched the letter out of his friend's hand with a small thanks. He then sprinted out the door of the Tower with a grin on his face. His teammates looked at each other with confusion at their leader's actions. He had never done _that_ before!

Robin bounded down the hillside of their island. The hot summer air instantly made the boy start to sweat, but he didn't care. He slid to a stop on the grassy hillside and sat down to read his prize. He laughed at his childish actions back in the Tower and knew he had his friends puzzled by now, but he felt like he needed to be left alone to read this. He almost felt 13 again and it made him smile to himself.

The teen ripped the envelope open and quickly unfolded the letter with some care. He laid down on the hill while reading. It said…

_Dear Robin,_

_Sorry I haven't written to you in what seems like forever. The training school on the moon you told me about doesn't let anyone send letters to earth, but I'm on earth now for a little visit. But I love life at my new school. Did you know that Amelia signed up as well and she is in some of my classes? She is just as preppy and cheerleaderish as ever. No surprise there. But thanks for the application to the school. I like the school a lot. But I visited Josh and Lilly just a few days ago with Amelia. Josh is now playing town hero once in a while. He likes school better than being a superhero, but he also likes to help others. So of course his indecisiveness made him split the jobs. And Lilly quit the superhero thing all together. She created a band in her town and became an instant hit there. I bought you a ticket for one of her showings. I want you to go see her. She would like it a lot. Her band's name is surprisingly Shadow Demon. So please write back to me and good luck with the Titans. I've heard so much about them._

_Your old teammate,_

_Alex_

Robin looked at the ticket stapled to the paper and saw the date. His eyes went wide when he saw that her show was only two days! He would have to take a plane out to where she lived or something along those lines. He would have to pack right away. But he knew it would be worth it.

The teen sat back up and read the letter again to himself. It had been such a long time ago when he last saw them get on that train and leave, but he could have sworn it was only a few months ago. Time could fly. He missed his other team, but he was happy with the one he was with now. The Titans were his family and pretty much his life. He would never want to go back to his old one, but he could still miss them now and then.

And then he realized that if it wasn't for his old team he wouldn't have quit at being sidekick and hadn't gone to Jump City to form the Teen Titans. It was funny how fate just played out so smoothly. The leader gave a sigh as he thought back to the old days with Batman. He had grown so much since then.

It made the teen actually laugh out loud when he realized that his small dream of being leader back then was gone. He was now fulfilling the dream and doing a pretty good job at it. He wasn't known as Robin the sidekick of Batman anymore. He was now Robin: Leader of the Teen Titans. And he planned on keeping that title for a _very_ long time.

The End

By: Pixiegirl13

A/N: There it is readers, the end to my story. I'm kind of sad that it's all done. I had a blast writing it. But all good things have to come to an end. But I'm starting up another different kind of fan fic soon and I hope you guys read it. Well, thank you everyone for reviewing this fic! If it wasn't for you guys, maybe you wouldn't be getting an ending. So thanks! And thanks to those people who just read. I know there were a lot of you out there. My hits for this fic hit the roof and that made me happy as well. Thank you all! And now I'm done here. I hope you all enjoyed it!


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